


Team AERO

by Aysl_Faraday



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2019-09-29 05:56:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 26,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17197817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aysl_Faraday/pseuds/Aysl_Faraday
Summary: Repost from Fanfiction.netA boy searching for adventure, a girl on the run from a home of luxury, a rogue searching for her family and a Faunus tying to help his own. This unlikely but skilled team will either use their talents to fulfill their dreams together, or fall to their separate desires. I only own the OCs. RWBY and its characters and names belong to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum.





	1. Recruitment

Late at night in the city of Vale, a sixteen-year-old boy laid back against the roof a building, hearing nothing but the music coming from his earphones. The boy had dark gray hair and black eyes wearing a white zipped-up jacket with black lines on the edges of the sleeves and a black symbol of an eye surrounded by blades of the back. He also had black jeans and black and white sneakers. On his left jacket arm, a series of small steel blade segments connected by a small chain in the middle of each ran across the outer fabric from the forearm to the back of his neck where an extendable grey sword handle with a small chain tassel and a trigger switch under the guard was held by a custom metal grip. The boy is known as Ashton Valdis or simply Ash raised his arms up and looked to the dark sky while he lazily stretched. He grits his teeth when he brings his arms down and looks around at the city, where he saw nothing that caught his eye or exited him in any way.  _ ‘Why is the world so boring?’ _ He thinks to himself.  _ ‘There's nothing new to see, nothing new to do. I thought we were supposed to be fighting the forces of darkness?’ _ He complained.

He suddenly hears something loudly roar over his music and sees a large cargo plane fly over him. He is about to brush off the scene when he sees two more identical planes fly after the first one.  _ 'Something's not right. Why are those planes flying over the city?'  _ He quickly jumps from building to building and gets a better look at the planes and his eyes widen when he sees something. On the side of each plane, the mark of a red circle with a beast's head in the center with claw marks going over it. 'Isn't that the White Fang's symbol? What are those guys doing here?' The planes fly past him and toward the edge of the city where Ash knows there is a shipyard that goes out to sea. Ash smiles and shakes his head. "Alright, let's see what they're up too." He exhales and cracks his fingers before jumping from building to building to chase after the planes.

* * *

 

Ash ends up on top of a warehouse near the docks where the planes slow down and land just outside of the building. He looks through an overhead window and sees groups of men in white cloaks and masks running in and out of the building, each of them carrying crates into an airstrip where the three planes he was following landed. "Alright, let's see what you're up to White Fang." He shuts off his music, opens the window and jumps into the building, landing on a tall pile of crates. He makes his way to the ground and sneaks around the building to examine the operations, using his scroll to take photos whenever he can. He sees most of the men coming from a large door in the back of the warehouse and slowly makes his way there to see why. When the last person leaves, he slips through the closing door and finds a smaller room filled with stacks of large white crates, each one marked with the Schnee Dust Company logo. He quietly moves around and opens one of the crates and it is filled with dust crystals of various shapes, colors, and sizes.  _ 'You could supply an army with this amount of dust! What is the White Fang doing with all of this?!' _

“Hey what are you doing here?!” Someone shouts from behind him and he turns around to see two White Fang members, one with a gun the other with a sword, pointing at him from the entrance. “Oh shoot!” He exclaims and quickly ducks behind some of the crates as the guard opens fire on him, riddling the crate Ash was looking at with holes. “What are you doing!?” The guard yells at his friend and pushes his gun down. “One bullet hits those crystals, and this place goes sky high!” Ash backs against the crates as he hears footsteps echo throughout the room, surrounding him. “Darn it. Guess I have no choice.” He sighs disappointedly and thrusts his left hand down. The force unlocks a special mechanism and the metal segments slide off his arm onto the floor. When the handle brushes his hand, he catches it and flicks it up, extending it longer. The individual segments on the floor are pulled up by the chain, coming together to form a slightly curved longsword.

He waits for one of the men to come close and when he turns the corner Ash jumps out from behind the corner and slashes at his gun, making it split in half and fall to the ground. The man looks at his broken weapon in shock as Ash turns and kicks him to the floor. The other men draw shortswords and run towards Ash and the boy unlocks his blade, the handle becoming shorter and the blades of the weapon coming apart, becoming something similar to a whip. The cracks his weapon back and forth on the ground, warding the other White Fang members away. The men try to outnumber,  but Ash is somehow able to keep them away and starts to swing his sword faster. Ash grits his teeth and slowly moves forward towards the men. One pulls a gun out and Ash lashes out with his weapon, whipping his blade around the barrel of the gun.

The man looks shocked when he sees the blade and Ash pulls his blade back, forcefully pulling the gun out of the man's hands. Ash grits his teeth and swipes his arm in a circular arc, hitting the handle of the gun against the heads of the other White Fang members, knocking them out. Ash whips the gun off his weapon and blade comes back together. The men around him draw their sword in anticipation when the ground starts to shake. The men look behind them as a large man with a white horned mask and a chainsaw with two muzzles next to the blade lumbers forward. The men move to the side to let the Berserker though and Ash stares him down confidently, pointing his blade at him.

The Berserker lets out a heavy breath and points to the open hangar door behind him. “Get the Dust out of here. Don’t come back for me.” He tells the men in a deep low voice. They all comply with the Berserker's order and all run past Ash to the crates. The boy grits his teeth as he suppresses the urge to go after the other men, but the Berserker in front of him was the bigger concern. The two watch each other intently as men around them carry the crates out of the building one by one. The last one, look back into the building and shuts the closes the garage door, trapping the two inside.

As soon as the door reaches the ground, Ash jumps forward with his sword held out behind him, the Berserker quickly raising his chainsaw to block the attack. The gray-haired teen keeps up the offensive, landing large overhead swipes at the chainsaw. The Berserker has a hard time keeping up with the young boy, only able to raise the chainsaw at the last second to block the younger boy's sword. The large man suddenly roars, revving up his chainsaw and raising it higher to bring it down on the boy, who jumps back away quickly. Before the boy can get back up, the Berserker charges at him again with surprising speed and the chainsaw raised again. The boy barely has any time to run out of the way as the Berserker rams his chainsaw into a pillar on accident, the blade getting caught in the concrete.  Ash sees his chance and rushes forward with his sword raised, only for the Berserker to flip a switch on his weapon and revs it up again. Without warning, flames erupt from the base of the weapon, making the young boy flinch and back away from the flames. "Whoa, what are you doing!?" The boy yells in shock, but the Berserker roars loudly and rips his weapon free from the stone. Ash holds his weapons up in front of him, while the Berserker swings his flamethrower from side to side, filling the area with flames.

"Stop this, you're gonna bring the entire building down!" Ash shouts at the man, but the Berserker doesn't hear him as he roars and madly swings at the kid. Ash turns and runs away, trying to get as much distance from the flamethrower as he can. He hides behind another pillar when he hears the loud noise of metal shaving of stone. He looks to one of the corners of the pillar and sees the Berserker cutting through it with his chainsaw. He roars and the chainsaw moves faster, cutting through the stone with ease and knocks the rest of the pillar away with his shoulder. Ash runs away to the next pillar but the Berserker does the same thing, breaking the next pillar in a single go.

Ash jumps back with his sword held behind him and the Berserker looks at him with burning. red eyes under his mask. "Look calm down, let's talk this out," Ash shouts to the man, but the Berserker doesn't listen and slashes at the other pillars that are holding up the garage. The stonework above the pillars start to crack and debris start to fall from the roof. "Stop! Calm down!" Ash shouts again, but when the Berserker cuts through the last pillar, Ash knew something bad was going to happen. The roof starts to crumble and large pieces of rock start to fall into the garage and a small rock hits the Berserker, breaking out of his angered state and when he looks around him, he runs for the nearest door and shaves it open with his chainsaw. "Hey wait for-" Ash yells after the man, but a large rock falls from the doorway and blocks him off. "Oh come-" Ash exclaims, but the sound of a large stone hitting the ground makes him flinch and turn around. Another stone falls from the roof, this one larger than the others. Ash kneels down and clenches his fist, rearing his arm back. Black energy starts to spiral around his fist and when the rock fall closer to his, he gets up and punches it with his charged fist. The black energy surges through the stone and it shatters and crumbles instantly from the energy. The rest of the building starts to fall away over Ash, so he holds his sword out and clenches the handle tightly and black energy extends from his hand and wraps around the blade. Ash holds his charged sword back and slashes upward at the ceiling, the black energy extending from the blade and cutting through the falling debris in front of him. The stones break apart to pebbles and they rain down on Ash as he thrusts his sword to the side.

Ash takes a deep breath and bends over and props himself up with his sword, breathing heavily as he looks out at the ruins of the garage. "I-I think I went overboard with my power." He breaths to himself. He suddenly hears some debris shift behind him and whirls around, throwing a wild punch at the intruder only to have his hand caught by a white-haired old man. The man had dark shades, a black suit over a green undershirt, green pants, black dress shoes and a green scarf with a cross symbol around his neck. He also held a mechanical cane in his left hand. "You know young man, that was quite the display of skill you just showed me" Ash scowls at the man and slowly lowers his hand and backs away, unsure about the man's hostility. "Who are you and why are you watching me?" The man passively waves his hand and gestures to the glittering city behind him. "Let's get you out of here first. We don't want the police to arrest you now, would we?

* * *

 

The man takes Ash to a prison building back in the city and they are let through all the sealed doors with relative ease. They walk in silence until they arrive at a hallway lined with prison cells making Ash step away from the man and fall into a fighting stance. "Why did you bring me here? What do you want from me?" The man, now holding a plate of cookies and a cup of coffee, both taken from a stand in another room, keeps walking while he answers prompting Ash to keep up. "I can assure you, Mr. Valdis, you're not in trouble. We're here because my assistant found someone of interest and she stayed with here her to wait for us." He opens a door at the end of a hall and the first thing Ash sees is a tall blond woman with green eyes, square glasses and is wearing a white blouse and black dress that goes down to her ankles and high heels holding a tablet. The man walks up to the table in the center of the room and leans down. "Ruby Rose. You… have silver eyes." Ash looks past the man and sees a girl about his age sitting down on the other side of the table, looking quite nervous. She had dark black hair with red highlights, a long red cape pinned with silver crosses on a black blouse with a skirt with red highlights, black socks, black boots with red laces. Since the man mentioned it before, the first thing Ash looks at as he leans against the back wall is her silver eyes.  _ 'Why did he have to mention that? What's so special about her silver eyes?' _

"So, where did you learn to do this?" The man gets up and gestures to the tablet the woman is holding, where a video is playing of Ruby beating up a bunch of things with a large red mechanical scythe. "S-Signal Academy." The man’s eyes widen at her claim. "They  taught you how to use one of the most dangerous weapons ever designed with that level of skill?" "Well, one teacher in particular." She responds and the man fixes his glasses, intrigued by her answer. "I see." He sets the plate of cookies in front of Ruby, who cautiously eats one cookie before quickly eating about seven of them in quick succession. "It's just that I've only seen one scythe wielder of that skill before." The man continues. "A dusty old crow..." Ruby gives a muffled response, before swallowing her cookie in a single gulp. "Ahh, sorry. That's my Uncle Qrow; he's a teacher at Signal. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing. Now I'm like, Whooowah, waaattchaa!" She starts to exaggerate the noises with various martial art gestures and poses.

Ash gets up from the wall and walks up next to the man, who sits down, "So why is a girl like you doing at a school designed to train warriors?" Ruby looks between the two of them, "I… want to be a Huntress." The man raises an eyebrow at Ruby’s response. "You want to slay monsters?" He asks her. Ruby smiles and nods her head and starts to ramble, speaking faster as she goes on, "Yeah! I only have two more years left at Signal then I want to apply at Beacon. You see my sister is starting this year and she's trying to become a Huntress. I'm trying to become a Huntress because I want to help people. Our parents always taught us that we should help people so I thought “Hey I might as well make a career out of it." I mean the police are alright, but Huntsmen and Huntresses are just so much more romantic and exciting and cool and just gosh, you know!"

The man smiles at her as if he accepted her reasons to be a Huntress. "Do you know who I am?" Ruby nods at the man. "You're Professor Ozpin. You're the headmaster at Beacon." Ash's eyes widen and he looks at the man he walked with in a new light. "Wait, you're that Ozpin. As in the prodigal founder and headmaster of the best school for aspiring huntsman and huntresses." The man now recognized as Ozpin smiles at the young boy's shock. "Yes, I am that Ozpin. It is nice to make your acquaintance Mr. Valdis." Ash put a hand over his mouth and leans back against the wall, taking a few deep breaths to process his thoughts, as he realizes that he just threatened and almost attacked the man that ran his dream school. He is about to say something when Ozpin raises his hand and stops him. "It's fine; I would have done the same in your shoes. “The blonde woman on the other side of Ozpin finally raises her voice. "Professor if I may, could you explain who is this boy and why is he here?" Ozpin reaches into his pocket and pulls out a scroll before handing it to the woman. "This is Ashton Valdis, and if you would kindly play the video on this scroll, you'll understand why he is here." The woman plugs the scroll into the tablet and a video plays, showing Ash's fight against the White Fang and the Berserker from an overhead view up until the Berserker activates his flamethrower.  _ 'Where was he when he videoed this?'  _ Ash wondered. The woman turns to Ozpin and nods her head. Ruby tilts her head to watch the video and her eyes widen as the video shows Ash's sword. "Where did you learn to fight like that and where did you get that sword?" She asks Ash.

 

He scratches the back of his head and flicks his wrists so his sword comes together in his hand again. “I uhh... Taught myself. As for the sword, it was given to me by someone important.” Ruby nods her head, satisfied with the answer and they both look back at Ozpin as the woman puts her tablet away. “Back to the matter at hand, I want you both to come to my school.” The eyes of everyone in the room except his own widen in shock. “I know you're not at the age requirement yet, but the skills you’ve shown tonight more than make up for that. If you want, I could let you in a few years early.” Ash and Ruby look at each other with wide eyes while the blonde woman looks at her superior with nothing but anger in her eyes. “Professor Ozpin!” She whispers angrily. “Do you understand what your saying!? I know you’ve done things like this before, but NOW?! Their children their not ready for this.” Ozpin raises a hand to calm her down and looks at her with a blank stare. “Believe me Professor Goodwitch, they will be.” She looks at Ozpin with a confused look as he turns back to the teens, who are still silent by the offer. “So what do you say, Miss Rose and Mr. Valdis?” The two teens look at each other before smiling and looking back at the headmaster.


	2. Beacon Academy

The next day, Ash and Ruby take a carrier plane that would take them along with the next batch of students to Beacon Academy. As they walk around the halls of the ship, a girl with extremely long and messy blonde hair that went down to the bottom of her back and lilac eyes wearing a short tan open vest over a yellow crop top with large yellow bracelets on both her wrists which Ash assumed were her weapons, a brown half skirt and brown belt over small black shorts and brown boots with orange socks, ran up to the two of them and hugged Ruby tightly. ”Hey, Ruby! Oh, I can't believe my baby sister is going to Beacon with me! This is the best day ever!” Ash just smiled and stood behind Ruby, hearing her mumble painfully. “Please stop.” The blonde girl jumps back still excited. “But I'm so proud of you!” Ruby brushes her sister off. “Really sis it was nothing.” “What do you mean? It was incredible! Everyone at Beacon is going to think you're the “bee's knees!” He sister excitedly says. “I don't want to be the ‘bee’s knees’ okay, I don't want to be any kind of knees,” Ruby whined. “I just want to be a normal girl with normal knees.” Ash looks at Ruby with a raised eyebrow. “What's the matter? I mean, this is your dream school? Aren't you excited?” She turns to Ash with a disheartened look. “Of course I'm excited but… I got transferred ahead by two years. I don't want anyone to think I'm special or anything.” Ash smiles and shakes his head. “It doesn’t matter if your special or not. Just be happy that you got accepted here. Not everyone can get in, especially someone two years lower than the age requirement.” Ruby takes a deep breath and smiles at Ash. “Whew, thanks, Ash. I guess I'm just nervous.” Ash waves her off with his hand. “Yeah, I'm nervous too. It's a new school after all.”

“Wait, Ruby who is this guy?” The blonde girl looks behind Ruby and straight at Ash. Her eyes move from him to Ruby, and back again before she hugs Ruby even tighter than before. “OH! MY! GOD! I can't believe my little sister got a boyfriend before me! That's so cute!” Ash puts his hands up innocently and Ruby’s face turns redder than her cape. “It's not like that!” They both yell at the same time. The other girl looks at both of them with a raised eyebrow and a smug grin. “Are you sure about that?” Ruby pushes her sister away and waves her arms. “I only met him yesterday! I don't like him like that he's just a friend!” Said boy nods rapidly at Ruby’s claim. “Yeah your sister is pretty great but I don't like her like that!” Yang pouts and crosses her arms. “Aww~ but you look so cute together. Anyway, hi whoever you are, I’m Yang! Ruby's older sister!” Ash extends his hand which Yang grips and shakes firmly. “I’m Ash. I transferred here a year earlier like your sister.” Yang lets go of his hand. “Yeah, I figured.”

A hologram of the woman Ash saw last night suddenly appeared in front of the windows of the ship, catching the attention of the teens. “Who’s that?” Yang askes. [“Hello and welcome to Beacon, my name is Glynda Goodwitch. You are among the privileged few who have received the honor of attending…”] Ash tunes out the announcement and decides looks around the ship to get an idea of his potential competition at Beacon. His eyes rest on a tall, muscular boy who looks like he was trying to stay away from all the windows on the ship. The boy had short black hair and brown eyes and wore a black leather jacket with large brown gloves on both hands, gray pants and metal greaves that covered his bottom legs and feet. Strapped to his arms was half of what appeared to be a large black hexagonal shaped shield with triangular patterns on the outer rim. Ash walks up to the boy and lightly tapped his shoulder, and was startled when the other boy whipped around and grabbed Ash’s wrist tightly, his arm and body shaking with fear and anger. “W-What’s your problem huh!? Y-You trying to start something!?” Ash is stunned at the ferocity of the boy’s grip and feels his bones being crushed in his grip. Showing no emotion, Ash uses his other hand and pries the boy’s hand off his wrist and throws the other boy’s arm down, making him stumble from the force, “No, I was just going to say there are other ways to hide your apparent fear of heights.” The boy looks at Ash with wide eyes and is about to raise his fist when Ash presses on. “If you’re going to deny it, don’t. Strength isn't hiding your fear, it's overcoming it. You have my word that I won't tell anyone, but the sooner you get over your fears, the better.” The boy says nothing as Ash walks away from him and lowers his hand while looking down in defeat. Ash looks down at his wrist and lifts his sweater sleeve to see bright red abrasions with small puncture marks from where the guy was holding him.  _ ‘These aren’t human hand marks’ _ Ash thinks to himself and looks back at the boy, now with a better idea of whom or rather what the boy was.

He rejoins Ruby and Yang and the former marvels at the view of her old school. “I guess home isn't too far after all.” Yang puts her arm around Ruby and shakes her reassuringly. “Beacon is our home now.” The three of them hear a strange noise behind them and see a blonde boy with blue eyes in white armor over a black hoodie, jeans and black and white sneakers similar to Ash’s, looking over the edge of the ship put a hand over his mouth and runs past the group to the bathroom. “Well, I guess the view isn't for everybody.” Yang comments. “I wonder who we're going to meet?” She wonders. “I just hope they're better than “Vomit boy,” Ruby replies. Ash yawns and cracks his fingers.”Yeah uhhh…” He looks down and sees something near Yang’s foot. “Hey, Yang?” Said girl looks at Ash, the clicks his shoes together making her and Ruby look down at their feet before screaming in disgust. “Eww, Yang gross! You got puke on your shoe!” The two sisters begin to freak out with Ruby comically running away from Yang as Ash stands off to the side, trying to stifle a laugh.

* * *

 

When the plane lands, Ash is one of the first few kids to walk off and the ‘Vomit boy’ quickly runs past him to the nearest trash can. Ash goes into the courtyard and looks in awe at the main building of Beacon. “I can't believe it. I'm actually here in Beacon.” He puts his hands in his pockets and smiles. “This place is a dream come true.” He keeps walking forward and doesn't see someone in a long black cloak walking in front and he runs into the person, knocking both of them over. Ash quickly gets up and extends his hand. “Oh god, I'm sorry I should have been paying attention.” The person reaches out and grabs his hand. “No, it's fine I…” Ash looks at the person he hit and finds a girl about the same age as him with pink hair and dark crimson eyes looking up at him under her black hood which covered her body all the way down to her ankles. The two of them look at each other without saying anything, both of them lost in each other's gaze. Ash snaps out of his reverie and pulls the girl up but doesn't let go of her hand. “Uh, ah, Hi, I-I’m Ash Valdis. What's your name?” He starts to mentally panic at his unusual behavior.  _ ‘Why the heck am I stuttering!? It's just a girl for crying out loud!’  _ The girl takes her hand back and pulls her hood lower and looks away from Ash. “M-My names-” An explosion suddenly rocks the earth and Ash looks up to see a red cloud with sparks of ice and lightning.  _ ‘Why do I have the feeling that Ruby is somehow behind this?’ _ Ash wonders. He closes his eyes and lets out a long breath and turns back to the girl. “Hey sorry but I…” When he opens his eyes, is surprised to see no one in front of him anymore. Raising an eyebrow and scratching his head, he begrudgingly runs off in the direction of the smoke and doesn't see the girl hiding behind a nearby pillar, blushing like crazy under her hood.  _ ‘Ash Valdis, I wonder just what kind of person you are?’ _

Ash runs past a bunch of other kids and unsurprisingly sees Ruby in the center courtyard being yelled at by a girl covered in a layer of ashes. “Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!” Ruby is awkwardly touching her pointer fingers together. “I'm really, really sorry!” The girl stamps off the ashes, revealing pale skin and white hair pulled into a side ponytail held by a silver crown pin and pale blue eyes with a small scar over the left eye. She had a pale blue knee-length dress and tall white boots and a silver belt with a small pouch and a silver rapier with a revolving barrel strapped to her side. Ash was able to get a quick look at the back of her dress and he recognized the familiar Schnee Dust Company logo, giving him a good idea at who the girl was. “Ugh! You complete dolt! What are you even doing here?” Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?” The girl exclaims angrily.

Ash moved forward and put a hand on the other girl’s shoulder, getting her and Ruby's attention. “Ok, now that's enough. First off, if she's able to attend Beacon at that age, doesn't mean that she has more skill than the average student here? And second, if she is that young, shouldn't someone older like yourself set an example for her?” Ruby is left stunned about Ash defending her while the other girl turns her anger on him and knocks his hand away from her, appearing to have forgotten about Ruby. “Who do you think you are?! Do you know who I am?!” she screamed. Ash smugly raises his head and an eyebrow and looks down at the girl. “To the first question, I'm no one important. Just a boy trying to go on about his life. I'm only here because you yelling at my friend right here. To the second question, yeah, I think I know who you are. You're a spoiled princess who has to learn how to be around other people.”

The girl looks like she is about to blow her top when someone else speaks first. “It's Heiress actually.” Ash turns to see another girl with fair skin and long black hair with a bow on top and amber eyes walks up to them. She wore a short loosely buttoned black vest over a white undershirt, had long black ribbons wrapped around her forearms and black low-cut boots. She held a vial mostly full of red powdered dust with the Schnee logo on the front of it and had a black sword with the handle of a handgun was strapped to her back. “Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world.” Ash’s smirk gets wider as he answers. “Yeah, I had a feeling. But I honestly didn't care.” Weiss glares at Ash as the other girl continues “The same company infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners.” Ash laughs so hard he clutches his stomach and Ruby puts a hand over her mouth to snicker as Weiss starts to stutter at the girl’s statement and grabs the dust vial from the other girl and storms away.

“I'll make it up to you!” Ruby yells after her, but Ash puts a hand in front of her. “You should be obligated to do that. She has to learn that not everything isn't handed to her on a platter, no matter whom or what has to show her that.” Ruby head down and turns to the other girl, but she was already walking away, making Ruby’s head go lower and her legs to give out under her. She slumps to the floor and lies on her back. “Welcome to Beacon…” Ash is about to reach down but someone else moves before him. He looks over and sees the ‘Vomit boy’ holding his hand out to Ruby, “Hey. I'm Jaune.” She takes his hand and pulls herself up; “Ruby” Ash does a two-fingered salute to Jaune. “I'm Ash Valdis, nice to meet you.” Ruby takes a quick look at him and chuckles. “Aren't you the guy that threw up on the ship?” Jaune makes a shocked face and Ash snickers to the side.

* * *

 

“All I'm saying is that motion sickness is a more common problem than people let on!” The three walk around the school together with Jaune explaining in detail the problems that motion sickness brings. “Look I'm sorry.” Ruby apologized. “Vomit Boy” was the first thing that came to mind.” Oh yeah? What if I called you Crater-face?” Jaune shot back. Ruby shook her arm in defiance. “Hey, that explosion was an accident!” Jaune stood up straighter and introduced himself, “Well the names Jaune Arc. Short, sweet, rolls of the tongue, ladies love it!” Both Ash and Ruby raise a skeptical eyebrow at his claim. “Do they?” They ask at the same time. Jaune’s confidence face falls and he puts his arms out defensively. “They will. At least I hope they will. My mom always said that… Never mind.” The three walks in awkward silence until Ruby breaks it. “So... I got this thing.” She reaches for the compact weapon strapped to her back and it unfolds it into the scythe she used in the video Ash watched, making both boys step back. “Whoa! Is that a scythe?” Jaune asked in disbelief. Ruby holds it up and smiles. “Yep, it's called Crescent Rose and it's also a customizable high impact velocity sniper rifle.” Jaune looks confused so Ruby cocks the weapon for emphasis. “It's also a gun.” Making him awe in realization.

Ash flips out of his sword and shows it to the other two. “This is my weapon, I call it Scattered Fragment.” Ruby runs over to Ash and takes his sword form him and looks it over from top to bottom. “Wow!” She exclaims and takes a few practice swings. A sudden gust of wind blows past her and she looks to her side to see Ash holding his sword in his hand. “Sorry.” He says to Ruby and he puts his sword back into his arm. “I’m just not used to others messing with this. This sword means a lot to me, you know?”  


Afterward, Jaune tries to show off his weapon, which was a simple broadsword and a shield that retracts to make the scabbard for the sword he wore on his side. Ruby looks underwhelmed at the simplicity of the weapon and reaches to examine the shield, but Jaune lost control of the expanding mechanism and it uncontrollably bounced out of his hands, almost dropping it. Ruby holds up Crescent Rose and rubs it softly “Sorry! It's just that I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I think I went overboard designing mine.” Jaune looks surprised at her statement, “Wait you made that?!” Ash looks at Jaune questioningly, “Yeah, I all students in combat schools forge their own weapons. Didn’t you make yours?” Jaune looks down at his sword, “It's a hand-me-down. My great-grandfather used it in the war.” “Sounds like a family heirloom to me.” Ruby says insensitively, making Ash elbow her, “I mean I like it! Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days.” Jaune looks down at his weapon with a deflated look, “Yeah, the classics.” After putting his weapon away and walking around a bit longer, Ruby turns to Jaune, “Hey do you know where we’re going?” “No, I was following you?” Ash looks at the two with disbelief and shakes his head. “Ok follow me, I think I know where we’re going.”

Ash leads them through a large gate and onto the main campus. From there, he walks the two through the school and into an auditorium where most of the students were gathered. He instantly spots Yang waving at them. “Ruby! Over here saved you a spot!” The Ruby waves back and says goodbye to Jaune before joining her sister and Ash sees the boy he met on the plane, now looking sad and dejected. “Okay Jaune you're on your own now. See ya.” Ash gives Jaune another two-finger salute and walks away, leaving Jaune complaining something about cute, quirky girls. Ash walks up to the boy and taps his shoulder again, making the boy turn around and gave him an off-handed wave. “Hey mind if I stay here?” The boy nods and Ash plops down next to him and extends his hand. “I didn't catch your name, by the way, I’m Ashton Valdis but you can just call me Ash.” The other boy takes his hand and shakes it firmly. “I’m Onyx Fractan, nice to meet you. Thanks for what you did for me on the plane by the way.” Ash lets go and waves him off. “Don't mention it. We’re all afraid of something; it's just a matter of overcoming it.”

The whole audience becomes quiet as Ozpin walks onstage to the microphone. “I’ll keep this brief.” He starts. “You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people.” Ash hears some of the students murmur amongst themselves in self-praise. ‘Just wait for the kicker. Annnd...’ He thinks. Ozpin continues his speech, now in a more condensing tone. “But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step.” Ash looks around and the students who were so happy are now looking down at each other, the whole audience filled with unease. Glynda walks up to the microphone and takes Ozpin’s place. “You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Your initiation starts tomorrow. Be ready. You are dismissed!” As the students stand up and walk around Ash looks at Onyx, who looks uneasy, “Are you doing okay Onyx?” The boy brushes it off and stands up next to Ash. “Yeah, it’s just the speech getting to me.” Ash nods in agreement. “Yeah, but I guess that was the only way he was going to get the message out. We really can die from this training. It's only going to get more serious from here.” Onyx shakes off his fear and looks at Ash. “It was nice meeting you Ash; I’m going to hang with my other friends now. See ya.” As he walks away, Ash looks around at the rest of the audience and internally frowns.  _ ‘That girl with the hood, she's not here. I wonder why?’ _

* * *

 

Later that night, Ash changes into a white short-sleeved shirt and black shorts as he lies on his sleeping bag. He fiddles with a necklace he wears under his clothes and stares longingly at his emblem, the same as the one on the back of his jacket, printed on a small metal coin. ‘I wonder how she’s doing. Hope she’d be proud of me.’ He grips his emblem tightly in his hand and looks up towards the ceiling.  _ ‘I promise, I’m going to find you. It doesn’t matter who or what stands in my way, I’m going to bring you home.’ _ Ash can still remember her hair, her smile and most importantly his promise.  _ ‘Never again will I fail her.’ _ Ash releases the necklace and says to no one in particular. “Okay, you've been staring at me for the past hour. What do want?” He turns his head over and sees an older girl with brown hair and bluish-green eyes, lying under her sleeping bag, looking straight at him. Ash uses his semblance and his eyes briefly invert, letting him see the outline of small gauntlets on her wrists hidden under her sleeping back, making him raise an eyebrow with interest.  _ ‘Why is she so paranoid?’ _ Ash wonders.  _ ‘Were in a school with trained hunters as teachers. What does she have to be worried about?’ _ The looks at him, unmoving and unblinking.  _ ‘What would she have to fear here I wonder?’  _  She looks at him with a hostile look, making his take note of the placement of his sword. “I wanted to see what kind of person you are.” She gestures to his neck. “That necklace you have has some sort of personal meaning to you. It drives you like it's the reason why you're here.” Ash props himself up with his elbow and turns to her with a dark look in his eyes and asks in a threatening tone. “What if it is why I’m here? What does it matter to you?” The girl is undeterred by the boy and looks at him with a black expression, “I had something similar once, something that gave me hope. It’s gone now and I have to pay the price for losing it.” She turns over and faces away from Ash. “Whatever you do, don’t make the same mistakes I did. Hold on to that hope of yours. My name’s Rain Aqdrios by the way. Nice to meet you, Ash Valdis.”

The boy says nothing as he lays back and closes his eyes and thinks back to the start of his day.  _ ‘Day One at Beacon and I’ve met Ruby’s sister, someone who I think is a Faunus, two mystery girls, a boy who had motion sickness and a spoiled Schnee princess. Not bad actually.’  _ As he drifts off to sleep, he actually smiles at his situation.  _ ‘At least my stay here won’t be boring.’ _ He thinks to himself before dozing off.


	3. The First Step

In a dark dream, Ash runs around a dark empty space yelling out someone's name.  _ ‘Rhode! Rhode, where are you?!’  _ He keeps running in the darkness, hoping to find some clue as to where he could find her. Suddenly, a ray of light strikes down through the darkness, landing on the fallen body of a girl with bright purple hair in a white dress. Ash turns to the girl and when he sees her, turns towards her and runs faster.  _ ‘Rhode!’ _ When he reaches her, he puts a hand on the girl's shoulder and when she turns to face him, she stares back with soulless black eyes and pale white skin. Ash quickly steps away and reaches for his hidden pocket knife. “Who are you? What did you do to Rhode!?” He screams. The girl looks at him with a black expression and pounces on top of him and wraps her hands around Ash’s neck. Ash grabs her arms and tries to pry her off him. As he struggles against her, her face contorts into a mask of pure rage and she picks him up slams him back to the ground violently, screaming at him.  _ ‘WHY!? WHY COULDN'T YOU PROTECT ME!? I TRUSTED YOU?’  _ Her screams get louder and louder and Ash loses all his energy and his arms drop to the ground. He slowly lets out one last breath and white light overtakes his vision when he hears a new voice yell at him.  _ ‘Hey! Hey! Ash, wake up! WAKE UP!’ _

* * *

 

Ash suddenly wakes up in his sleeping bag, gasping for air. He is drenched in sweat and his breathing is quick and ragged. He closes his eyes and tries to shakes of the cobwebs of sleep and feels a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Are you OK?” Ash turns his head and sees Rain with her hand on his shoulder and a worried expression on her face. Ash takes a deep breath and exhales, letting all of the stress from the dream leave his body. “Yeah, I'm OK.” Rain’s hand doesn't leave his shoulder making Ash take it and push it back to her. “It's fine. Really, don't worry about it.” She nods her head and moves away as Ash stretches his hands over his head and looks around and finds everyone in the auditorium packing up their things. He lowers his arms and turns back to Rain, jerking his head at the other students. “What happening? Where is everyone?” Rain points her thumb behind her. “Everyone was told to prepare for initiation. You actually slept right through breakfast so I think they’re going to the waiting room to get their weapons ready. I heard some talk among the other students. Apparently, we’re all going to be part of a team with four people at most. The school is going to finalize teams during initiation so there are some who are planning to pair up with their friends.”

Ash takes what she said into account and looks around the students. ‘I have to work with other people? Great, just great.” He turns back to Rain as she stands up and Ash is able to get a good look at her combat clothes. She wore a white short sleeved shirt and brown camo shorts that went down to her knees. She wore two black belts, one diagonally against her chest and the other around her shorts, both with golden buckles. She had scratched-up black combat boots and short white ankle socks. Her gauntlets on her wrists were teal in color and had small black details on the top of her hands. “I should go. You have to prepare for initiation and try to see if there is any food leftover.” She tries to walk away when Ash stands up and grabs her shoulder, holding her in place. “Wait, I have to ask, why are you help me? Judging from how you acted last night, you seemed suspicious of me. What made you change your opinion of me?”

Rain turns back to Ash, but she doesn't see him anymore. In his place, a seven-year-old boy with brown hair similar to hers and light blue eyes looks up at her. She shakes her head and the image quickly vanishes and the young boy becomes Ash again. Tears well up in her eyes, but she quickly brushes them off. “I thought about what you said last night, about how that necklace you wear being behind the reason your here. You actually remind me of someone I used to know. He was also fueled by a promise he made, but he took it too far and I ended up having to fight him. I’m hoping that you don't end up like him. I can't stand the thought of fighting another one of my comrades.” She brushes his hand off and walks away without saying another word. Ash looks at her retreating figure with a raised eyebrow. “Rain Aqdrios,” he whispers. “You’re hiding something, something important. We may be comrades, but I'm going to find out.”

* * *

 

Ash gets changed into his old clothes and goes into the waiting room, where the walls are lined with containers for the students to store their weapon. As he walks through the room, the other students stop their conversations and turn to eye him, some with questioning looks, and others with smug grins. Ash waves them off and goes to the back of the room.  _ ‘I must have been screaming in my sleep.’  _  He retrieves Scattered Fragment from the locker and spins it overhead with a flourish and straps it to his left arm. He closes the locker and it surprised when he finds Onyx is leaning against the locker next to him. “So that's your weapon? I got to say that's some fine craftsmanship. How much did it cost?” Ash puts his arm behind him, keeping it as far away from Onyx as he can, and glares at the other boy. “It's not for sale if that's what you’re asking. No one takes this sword from me, understand.”

Onyx gets up from the wall and steps back from Ash when he senses pure killing intent coming off the boy. “Whoa OK sorry. I was just asking.” He slowly backs away and when he turns around completely, Ash drops his gaze and walks away in the opposite direction. He turns the corner and sees Yang talking with Ruby, who was holding Crescent Rose. “You’re not the only one going through initiation Ruby.  If you want to grow up, you have to meet new people and work together.” The younger girl groaned and put her scythe back in its container. “Ugh, you sound like Dad. Okay first of all: What does meeting new people have to do with fighting? Secondly, I don’t need other people to grow up. I drink milk!” Ash sneaks up behind Ruby and surprises both girls when he talks. “You know little rose, we have to form teams at this school.” Ruby starts to look nervous and her eyes dart back and forth from Ash to Yang. “I-uh-well what if I teamed up with one of you?” Yang nervously strokes her hair. “You know Ruby, maybe you should be on someone else's team.” Ruby steps towards Yang and points a finger at her with her other hand at her hip. “My dearest sister Yang, are you implying that you don't want to be teammates with me?” Ash steps back in the conversation, “Ruby I actually agree with Yang,” Both girls look at him with surprised expressions, especially Ruby, “If you want to be a good huntress, you have to be able to work other people. I can understand where you’re coming from, but you have to accept that you can’t reach your goals all by yourself.” Yang nods at Ash’s statement. “Yeah sis, they can help you, you know, break out of your shell.” Ruby looks at her sister with an annoyed expression. “I don't have to break out of my shell! That’s-”

“Ridiculous!” Someone interrupts. The trio stop talking as Jaune walks in between them, holding a map and scratching his head. “There’s no way I put my gear in locker 636 yesterday. I would have remembered having to count that high.” The three look at him with raised eyebrows.  _ ‘Did he really forget where he put his things?’ _ Ash thinks to himself before raising his hand, “Hey Jaune!” When he turns to him, Ash points to the right of the group. “If it helps, 636 is over there!” Jaune looks over and walks in the direction Ash pointed out. “Really? Thanks, Ash, I owe you one!” When he runs off, Ash looks past him and his eyes widen. “No way.” He sees a girl with red hair held in a ponytail, dressed as a Greek Spartan with a red and gold spear and shield strapped to her back. Weiss stops her conversation to glare at Ash, making the other girl turn around in confusion, only for her to smile at who she sees. “Ash? Is that you?” The boy walks up to her and they share a short hug, surprising all of the other girls. “It's good to see you again Pyrrha. It's been a while.” She hugs him tighter, happy to see her old friend again. “Yeah, it sure is Ash.”

“Excuse me?! What are you doing?!” The two break their hug and look at Weiss, who’s fuming with anger. “Do you have any idea who this person is! She-!“ Ash interrupts her with a cold stare, making her suddenly afraid. “She is Pyrrha Nikos, top of her class at Sanctum, four-time winner of the Mistral region tournament, mascot of Pumpkin Pete’s marshmallow flakes and most importantly, my childhood friend. Tell me something I don't know, Ice queen.” Weiss is too stunned and afraid to react to her new nickname. Ash suddenly drops his stare and takes a deep breath before turning away from the girls, “I’m sorry, I’m not having the best morning.” He feels a hand on his shoulder and looks at Pyrrha with a small smile. “Sorry Pyr, I’ll talk to you later OK.” He puts his hands in his pockets and walks off, leaving Jaune to step in, not having heard anything, and try to coax Weiss and Pyrrha to join his team. As Ash walks away, the girl he ran into the other day watches him leave from behind a locker. Curiosity fills her eyes again as an announcement blares over the speakers.  **[All first-year students, please report to Beacon Cliff for Initiation]** She puts a hand on the weapon at her side, taking in its weight and walks off to the cliff.

* * *

 

Ash steps on a large gray tile with the Beacon symbol at the edge of the cliff. He stands in a line in between Ruby and Yang and he looks down the line to and sees Onyx and Rain not too far from him. Ozpin sips his coffee as he looks at the initiates. “For years you have trained to become warriors, and today, your skill will be evaluated in the Emerald forest.” Glynda walks next to him, holding the same tablet Ash saw when they first met. “Now I’m sure many of you have heard of the assignment of ‘Teams.’ Well then allow us to put an end to your confusion. Each of you will be given teammates, today. These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time at Beacon so it is in your best interest you be paired up with someone with whom you can work well with.” “That being said,” Ozpin speaks up. “The first person you make eye contact with after landing will be your partner for the next four years.”

“Whaaat!” Ash looks at Ruby and she looks like her entire world shattered right before her eyes. Ash turns around looks down the line of students and sees some of them doing handshakes with their friends and others looking at the other students, eyes filled with worry. Ozpin loudly coughs getting everyone's attention talking, getting everyone’s attention. “After you have partnered up, make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will be met with opposition along the way so don’t hesitate to destroy everything in your path, or you will die.” Jaune laughs nervously and Ash smiles wickedly and clenches his sword arm in anticipation. “You will be monitored and graded through the duration of your initiation, but our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair must choose one and return to the top of the cliff. We will regard that item, as well as your standing, and grade you appropriately. Are there any questions?” Ozpin asks.

Jaune weakly raises his hand but Ozpin doesn’t see it. “Good, now take your positions.” Everyone except for Jaune draws and cocks their weapons. Ash crouches down putting his right hand on the tile and smiles with excitement. “Oh, I can tell this is going to be awesome.” One by one, the tiles everyone is standing on launch the students into the air like a springboard. Jaune doesn’t see this and asks his question. “So about this, landing strategy thing, what is it? Are you dropping us off or something?” As Ozpin entertains his question, Ash sees Onyx shaking wildly, his fear of height kicking in before being launched into the air screaming with Rain trailing behind him. Yang looks at the four still on the cliff and puts on a pair of aviators before flying of cheering. Ash gives Ruby a two-finger salute and his tile activates, sending him flying after the other students. When he feels the air rushing around him and the sound of the other students' screams and cheers, he can’t help but join them.


	4. Initiation Part 1 - The Emerald forest

Ash looks around smiling at the other student as he flies through the air with them until he hears the pained squeaking of a bird. “Birdie no!” He looks at Ruby, who has black feather trailing behind her; shoot Crescent Rose in its compact form in front of her to slow her descent before unfolding the blade and wrapping it around a branch, stopping her fall. Ash looks back up and sees a few tall branches in front of him. “Let's hope this landing strategy works.” He mumbles and as he takes out his sword. He unlocks the blade segments and whips it around one of the larger branches. The blades stick the wood and the chain holds him back from flying any further. He pulls the blade trigger before the whiplash hits him and the chain blade retracts and pulls him towards the branch.

He grabs onto the branch with his sword and looks at the surrounding area from his vantage point. He turns to the sound of someone's voice and sees Onyx put his arms together, making the shields on his arms come together, forming a large circular shield and holds it in front of him to cushion his landing. The next one to fall near Ash is Weiss, who twirls her rapier and creates a circular purple glyph below her, using it as a landing pad to jump further into the woods.

Another boy with black hair with a pink streak, wearing a green shirt and white pants flies down after her. He pulls out green guns with long curved blades at the end of the barrel and stabs one of the blades into a tree, using gravity and his speed to spiral down its trunk to the ground. A loud blast rings behind Ash and he turns around and watches as Yang flies through the air, firing her gauntlets behind her, using the recoil of the guns to propel her forward. She cheers as she flips through the air, weaving in between high branches before using the trees to slow her speed and falling into the forest below her.

Ash takes a minute to marvel the forest around him from his vantage point. He smiles to himself and nods in approval. “Alright, enough sightseeing, I gotta find a partner.” He starts slowly makes his way down the tree when a flash of light from the bottom of the tree catches his eye. He jumps down, using the branches to brace himself, and when he hits the bottom, he finds a glass chess piece, a king, embedded in the roots of the base of the tree. ‘I wonder what this is. Maybe someone left it here by mistake? Either way, I should return it to whoever owns this.’ Ash thinks as he uses his sword and carefully cuts away at the roots and pulls out the chess piece. The chess piece is light blue in color, but the glass looked faded and dirty as if it had been left under the tree for a while. Ash dusts the piece of as best as he can and puts it in his side jacket pocket, zipping it shut before taking off running into the woods to find his new partner.

* * *

 

Pyrrha holds her shield, Akoúo out in front of her as she flies through three trees before doing a forward roll on a branch of the fourth and changes her spear Miló into its rifle form and looks around her from its scope. She turns around and sees Jaune slowly flipping through the air, crying out for help. Pyrrha acts and flips Miló in her hand, turning it into its spear form, the blade sharpening through the butt of the gun. She rears her arm back and lifts her other hand in a ‘thumbs up’ position, using her thumb to aim her shot and throws her spear forward, the weapon firing a shot from the back end to giving it more speed. She watches as her weapon flies toward Jaune, hearing a faint think of wood and a cry of, “Thank you!” coming from Jaune. “I'm sorry!” Pyrrha waves back to him.

* * *

 

Ruby lands on the forest floor and runs forward, calling it out for her sister. “Yang! Yang!” Her mind works furiously as she searches for her sister.  _ ‘Oh, what if I don't find her in time? What if she found someone else?’  _ She starts thinking about other people she can partner up with. ‘Well there's always Jaune, he seems nice and he’s funny. But I don't think he would do well in a fight. Hm, Oh what about Ash? He could do well in a fight. Then again, he said his fighting style might be too dangerous to be around, so maybe he isn't the best person to fight with.’ Ruby shakes her head in frustration. ‘Ok, who else do I know in this school, there's Yang, Jaune, Ash and…’ Ruby’s train of thought stops as she skids to a halt when someone walks in front of her. The person in question turns to her and Ruby slowly looks up to see Weiss, who makes eye contact with her, and looks down at the younger girl. The two stares at each other and Ruby gives the other girl a short smile, but Weiss turns on her heel and walks away. “Wait, where are you going!?” Ruby calls out extending her arm, but when Weiss disappears in the bushes, she lowers it and looks down dejectedly. “We’re supposed to be teammates,” she mumbles quietly.

Weiss walks through the bushes, pushing the occasional branch out of the way when she hears someone above her. She looks up and finds Jaune held up by his hood with a familiar red spear against the tree. He tugs at the spear to dislodge himself, but to no avail. “Urgh, come on, come on!” He stops and looks down at Weiss and waves at her embarrassingly. Weiss simply turns back around and walks away, leaving Jaune groaning dejectedly.

Weiss walks back to Ruby and grabs her by the hood of her cloak. “By no means does this make us friends.” She deadpanned to the girl. Jaune sees Weiss leaving with Ruby and calls out to them. “Wait! Come back!? Who’s going to help me get down from here!?” The girls vanish in the bushes and Jaune lets out a sigh deflated when someone calls out to him. “Jaune.” He looks down and finds Pyrrha smiling up at him, “Do you have any more spots on your team?” He crosses his arms and looks away. “Very funny…” He eventually looks back down and ends ups smiling with her.

* * *

 

Out in another part of the forest, Onyx trudges through the foliage with his new partner, Rain trailing behind him. The two had met right when they landed, with Rain having to coax Onyx out of a tall tree. The end result was Rain having to break down the tree with her gauntlets and letting Onyx crash land with his shield. Onyx had also found the same silver chess piece as Ash in the tree branches and kept it as safe as possible, hoping to find a use for it. He and Rain barely spoke, the two of them completely focused on finding the temple and getting their relics. Onyx eventually looks back at the girl with interest and speaks up. “So, what else does your weapon do? Or is it simply a pair of gauntlets.”

She looks back at him with cold eyes and swipes her wrist against the side of her belt behind her. The sides of her gauntlet whirl to life and long straight blade extend over her hand. A small cover moves away on the top of her hand and opens up to reveal a teardrop-shaped vial of water with dust crystals floating inside implanted in the center of her hand. A portion of the back of the gauntlet pulls back and falls over her wrist and clicks together under her arm. Onyx looks in awe as she calmly turns to the dark forest and slashes her arm to the side, firing a glowing blade of water from the front of her gauntlet. The water blade soars through the air in between the trees before hitting a stray Beowulf in the side of the head, decapitating and killing it instantly.

Rain swipes her arm forward against her belt again, making the blade retract and the gauntlet collapse to its base form. She turns to Onyx, who looks at her with a dumbfounded expression and puts her hand on her hip with a smug grin. “So, what else can your shields do? Or can they only come together?” Onyx regains his composure, puts his hands in his pockets and continues walking without Rain, “Find me a strong opponent and I'll show you they’re not just simple shields.” Rain chuckles and follows him into the woods. “Whatever you say, big guy.”

* * *

 

Ash continues to make his way through the forest, using his sword to slash apart any tall plants and low hanging branches in his way. He stops running and plants his sword in the ground to take a quick breather and looks back behind him, looking at the swath of destruction he left behind him. He winces at the thought of the reprimanding he would get for destroying a large amount of the forest. ‘I know Ozpin said, “Do not hesitate to destroy everything in your path.” But I think I went a little overboard on the destruction.’ Ash hears something move the leaves near him, making him quickly grab and raise his sword at the trees. “Alright, who’s there? Show yourself! Come on!” A faint voice calls out from above him. “Ash Valdis, who are you?” Ash turns around and finds the girl with the hood he met the other day looking down at him from a tree. She reaches for her side and whips out an assault rifle, holding it close to her and takes aim at Ash, but doesn't fire.

Ash tightens his grip on his sword and analyzes the girl and her weapon. She still wore her black cloak and hood over her clothes so he couldn't see anything under it. The assault rifle she carried was black in color had bright red markings that resembled flower petals running along the top side of the barrel. It had a long scope that looked like it was designed for sniping and an extra foregrip for her other hand on the underside of the barrel. The main grip and the short stock at the opposite end of the gun had an emblem of a red blooming flower with white stars on each of its petals, branded on either side. A few strands of her pink hair poke out from under her hood and her eyes were now a dulled red, looking like she was dead set on her goals.

Ash keeps his sword up, in case she tried to attack him. “I'm just a boy aspiring to be a hunter. I can tell you more later, you are my partner now right?” The girl's eyes widen as she realizes that fact and her eyes regain some of their color. “Yeah, I guess so.” Ash holds his hands up as if he was surrendering. “Look I don't want to fight you, OK. Let’s just find the temple and pass initiation first. I’ll answer any questions you have about me afterward, sound good?” She nods, satisfied with the terms and jumps down from the tree. She holsters her gun at the side and extends her hand to the boy. “I never got to tell you my name. I'm Erica, Erica Thurium. It's nice to finally meet you, Ash Valdis.” Ash looks at her wearily, surprised at her change of attitude, but put his weapon on his arm and takes her hand anyway. “Same to you, Erica.” The two shake hands and Ash feels a sense of completion, having found his partner when a loud roar startles the two out of their trance. The look around frantically, reaching for their weapons and they spot two glowing red eyes watching them from the forest.

* * *

 

Back on Beacon cliff, Ozpin blankly stares looks out into the Emerald forest while Glynda watches the progress of the initiates with hidden cameras through her tablet. “The last pair of Ashton Valdis and Erica Thurium has been formed.” Ozpin merely hums in approval as Glynda switches through the cameras before stopping at Jaune and Pyrrha. “I wonder Professor Ozpin, why did you let this year’s roster of initiates become this different from the previous years. We have three students who haven’t met the age requirement and three more who you let in despite their off-putting transcripts, like that Jaune Arc fellow. He may have good transcripts but I don’t think he’s ready for this level of combat.” Ozpin takes a sip of his coffee but doesn't answer Glynda’s questions. Instead, he looks down at a special meter on the upper left of his own tablet and smiles when he sees three out of four bars lit up blue.

Glynda sees Ozpin’s smile and looks at her tablet when a loud roar makes the two professors look into the distance, where birds are flying away from a faraway area. Glynda toggles through cameras with her tablet to find what the monster is while Ozpin continues to stare into the horizon.

* * *

 

Ash and Erica separate from each other as a large gorilla-like Grimm know as a Beringel, comes barreling out of the woods and lands in the spot they stood in. It stands on its hind legs and roars loudly to the sky, sending out a shockwave that shakes the leaves off of nearby trees and makes Ash and Erica cover their eyes. The beast falls on all fours stares the teens down before lunging at them. The two jump to either side of the Grimm as it smashes down on where they once stood, but it reaches out and is able to grab Ash by the heel. The boy swings his sword at the Beringel’s in an attempt to dislodge himself, but roars and smashes him down against the ground, holding up the boy upside down over its head.

Erica looks in horror when she sees the state Ash is in. His aura was able to take most of the attack but the force of the blow knocked him out. Erica yells as she draws her assault rifle and starts firing at the Beringel’s other arm to distract it from Ash. “Put him down!” The Beringel holds its arm up to protect itself from her shots, which have little effect, looks on it. Annoyed by the girl, the large Grimm rears its arm back and throws Ash’s limp body over the tree line and into the distance. Erica watches helplessly as her partner flies out of sight and the Beringel roars loudly, focusing its attention on the girl. Her eyes burn with anger as she turns and stares the Grimm down. “You’re going to pay for that,” she says in a menacing tone. Erica twists her gun’s foregrip to the side of the barrel and pulls it back towards her, cocking the gun. Her weapon goes through a drastic transformation as an extra barrel flips out from under the gun and attaches itself to the main barrel and the stock opens up from the top and reveals extra dust-infused sniper rounds of different colors. Holding her new sniper rifle, Erica takes aim at the left eye of the Beringel and fires off a single loud shot that reverberates through the forest.

* * *

 

Yang looks into the distance from the forest temple, having heard the gunshot. “Blake, did you hear that?! Someone needs our help!” The black-haired girl doesn’t respond to the partner as looks to the sky with a blank expression. Yang looks at her partner with a raised eyebrow. “Blake, what are you looking at?” The other girl simply points up and Yang follows her finger to see Ruby flailing her arms as she falls from the sky. “Yaaannggg!”


	5. Initiation Part 2 - Players and Pieces

Ruby opened her eyes, the wind whipping around her as she holds on to a large mass of black feathers. She strains to hear her partner yelling over the sound of the wind, “Ruby I told you this was a terrible idea!” Ruby risks a glance at Weiss, who holds onto the feathers from behind Ruby, “We’re fine! Stop worrying!” Ruby yells back. “I’m far beyond worrying, Ruby!” Weiss calls up to her. Ruby gets an idea shouts it to Weiss with irritation, “Well why don’t we just jump?!” Weiss’ eyes widen when she hears what Ruby is suggesting and looks down to the ground, “Are you insane?! We can’t jump from here!” She looks back up at where Ruby was holding on, only to find it empty, the other girl had already jumped down. “Oh, you insufferable little red-!” Weiss angrily cries out.

* * *

 

Back on the ground in front of the forest temple, Blake looks to the sky with a blank expression. Yang looks at her partner with a raises an eyebrow, “Blake what are you looking at?” The other girl simply points up and Yang follows her finger to see her little sister falling from the sky, “Yaaannggg! Heads uppp-” Ruby’s fall is broken when Jaune comes flying out of nowhere and hits her in her side. The two of them are sent flying into a nearby tree when a third person flies over them out of the treetops and lands on the ground, rolling from the speed, before coming to a stop at the feet of Yang and Blake. Blake uses her foot and rolls the body over, revealing Ash, who was a bit bruised and still unconscious. Blake looks at the boy and the tree with a raised eyebrow, “Did they just come falling out of the sky? And was that your sister?”

Before Yang can answer, the pair hear a loud roar coming from the forest. The look at the tree line to see a bear Grimm, known as an Ursa come flailing its arms out of the forest. A pink burst of light flashes behind the Ursa and the Grimm falls over on its face, a girl rolling off its back on to the ground. The girl has short orange hair, turquoise eyes and wore a black sleeveless vest over a light blue and red shirt, a pink dress that went down to her thighs and matching pink fingerless gloves. She had white boots with a mix of white and pink laces, a white sleeveless top with a heart shape that revealed some of the chest and cleavage, and a thin set of armor that wrapped around her clothes from waist up. She stood up and looks over the fallen Grimm with a sad expression, “Aww, it's broken.” She mumbled to herself.

The boy in green from earlier comes out from behind the Ursa and supports himself on its shoulder, out of breath and breathing heavily, “Nora...Please… Don’t ever that again.” He looks over to his side, only to find the spot where she once was outlined with metaphysical lines. The girl, Nora was in the forest temple, staring at a golden rook chess piece. She takes the chess piece and dances around, balancing the piece on her head chanting, “I’m queen of the castle!~ I’m queen of the castle!~” “NORA!!” Her partner calls out, snapping the girl out of her trance. She smiles and salutes, catching the rook in her hand as it falls off her head, “Coming Ren!~” Blake and Yang watch Nora skip away with a dumbfounded expression, “Did that girl just ride in on an Ursa?” Blake asks to no one in particular.

Another crash comes from the forest and everyone watches as Pyrrha and Erica come running out of the forest with a large Deathstalker and the Beringel bursting out of the trees to chase after them. The Deathstalker swings its open claws at Pyrrha, but she jumps through the first one and slides under the second without breaking stride. Erica, on the other hand, is firing light blue bursts of ice dust at the Beringel’s arms and legs, gradually slowing it down enough for her to get a lead before it breaks the ice and closes the gap.

Ruby looks at the ensuing chaos and jumps down from the tree she landed in. What she didn’t see was Ash, still sprawled on the ground and she landed directly on his stomach. The force wakes him up, but it also knocked the wind out of him, making him gasp for air. Ruby worriedly looks at Ash’s pained expression and she Yang and Nora start a chain of calling each other's names. Blake stays to the side and watches Pyrrha and Erica run from the Grimm, “Did those two come here with a Deathstalker and Beringel on their tails?”

Yang’s eyes turn red and the literally explodes into flame, with smaller flames trailing behind her waving arms, “Arrgh I can't take it anymore! Could everyone just chill out for two seconds before something crazy happens again!” Yang gets her wish as no one talks for two seconds until Ruby shakes her shoulder and points up, “Uhh, Yang?” The group looks up to see Weiss holding on to a claw of a giant Nevermore. “RUBY, HOW COULD YOU LEAVE ME?!” She screams in terror. Ruby simply shrugs her shoulders, “I said jump.” Ash facepalms and shakes his head, “Ruby, everyone isn’t as crazy as you.” He exasperatedly states. “She’s going to fall,” Blake deadpans. Ruby brushes her off with a wave of her hand, “She’ll be fine.” “She’s falling,” Ren continues after Blake. The group watch as Weiss helplessly falls from the sky when Jaune suddenly jumps out of a tree and catches her mid-fall. They somehow stay suspended in the air until Jaune looks down and he falls with Weiss and lands face down on the ground, Weiss landing after him on his back.

From behind them, Pyrrha and Erica are able to jump away from the Grimm and both land in front of the group, completely exhausted. “Great, they gangs all here! Now we can all die together!” Yang cheers sarcastically. Ruby jumps on her feet, “Not if I can help it!” She declares as she runs toward the Deathstalker with a battle cry, taking out Crescent Rose and firing a shot behind her to give her speed. Ash sees the Beringel run up from behind the Deathstalker and takes off after her and outstretched, “Ruby wait!” She takes one swing at the Deathstalker, but it swats her away with its hardened claws. Ruby lands on the ground and slowly picked herself up, “D-Don't worry! Totally fine!” She turns around and looks helplessly at the Deathstalker as it and the Beringel close in on her. She chuckles nervously and fires a shot at the Deathstalker to give her a head start, folds up Crescent Rose and runs away as fast as she can with both of the Grimm chasing after her.

“Ruby!” Yang cries as she sprints to help her sister. Above the group the Nevermore flies overhead and beats its wings, sending razor-sharp feathers raining down on Ruby. One of the feathers pierces her cape holding her in place and the rest fall toward Yang, making her slide to a stop as more feathers cage her in, stopping her from moving forward, “Ruby get out of there!” “I'm trying!” Ruby cries as she desperately pulls at her cape in an attempt to dislodge herself. Ash catches up Ruby as the Beringel reaches her and he holds his sword over him to protect her. The Beringel raised both its arms overhead and smashes down on Ash when a shot rings out and blasts the Beringel back. He turns around and sees Erica holding her sniper rifle, cocks it once and gives him a two-fingered salute. Ash moves to help Ruby when the Deathstalker reaches them and knocks him away with its claws.

Ash flies into a tree and Rain and Onyx step out from behind it. They see Ash’s fallen form and move to help him, “Ash! Hey, what happened!” A loud roar from the Beringel catches their attention and the watch as it runs toward Ruby. Ash tries to stand up, but his injuries make him fall over and he points to Ruby weakly, “Guys… Help her. Please...” The two get the message and nod in understanding.

“Ruby, NO!” Yang cries out from behind the feathers as the stinger falls toward her sister. She helplessly reaches out for Ruby when a flash of white dashes past her. Ruby closes her eyes and accepts her fate when she hears a loud clang and the sound of ice forming. “You are so childish,” a familiar voice says to her. Ruby slowly opens her eyes and sees Onyx blocking the stinger with his shield and Weiss who's out of breath and holding herself up with her rapier with a block of ice in front of her holding the Deathstalker’s tail in place. “And dimwitted, and hyperactive and don't get me started on your fighting style.” Onyx looks at the pale girl with a raised eyebrow, ‘She went through the trouble of saving Ruby just to insult her? I guess the rumors of the Schnees are true after all.’ “And I suppose,” Weiss continues, “I can be…difficult to work with. But if we're going to do this, we’re going to have to do this together. So, if you quit trying to show off, I’ll be...nicer.” Ruby looks up at Weiss wistfully, “I’m not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this.” “You're fine,” Weiss reassures her and walks away without another word. Ruby puts her hand together and gratefully whispers to herself, “Normal knees.”

Erica and Onyx run over to Ash, who is still propped up against a tree with Rain who had a hand against his head, “He's not going so good,” Rain starts when they reach her, “His aura is seriously low and he has a few cuts and bruises on his arms and chest.” Ash reaches out and puts a hand on Rain’s shoulder and pushes himself up, “I'm fine guys really. If we have any problems then my aura can just heal it right? Let's just -” He doesn't get say anymore as Erica pushes him back down and puts a hand on his chest. She closes her eyes and Ash’s body starts to glow green where her hand it touching him. “Hey what are you…” Ash tries to speak when he feels a sense of relief falls over him. He takes a deep breath and lets his body be overcome by the sensation. He is about to fall asleep when Erica’s hand leaves his body taking the sensation with her and waking him up. He opens his eye again and runs a hand over his arms and body and doesn't feel the pain anymore.

He watches with wide eyes as the pink haired girl stands up and steps back, “Wha-What was that? What did you do to me?” Erica holds up her hand and it glows green again with small yellow wisps floating up from her fingers, “It's my semblance. I heal wounds and remove physical pain from people.” Ash looks down at his hands and clenches them to a fist, “Wow, that one impressive semblance. Can't believe I got a partner like you. You’re amazing, thanks” Ash stands up and walks off, leaving the other three behind him, who watch as his aura unknowingly crackles behind him. Onyx looks down at Erica and nudges her arm, “Hey I thought you healed his wound? What's up with his aura?” He whispers to her. “I heal wounds, I don't restore someone's aura,” she responds, “Which leads me to ask.” She walks in front of the pair and slightly bows, “Can I ask you two to help me watch over my partner. His aura might not be fully restored, so he's still vulnerable to attacks. I can't watch over him be myself, so please, please help me.” The pair look each other sensing something else in the girl’s voice, but they shrug and look back at Erica, “Sure we'll help you out. I owe Ash a favor anyway.” Onyx replies. Erica looks back up as Rain put a hand on her shoulder, “Don't worry, we’re with you on this.” Erica takes a deep breath in relief, “Thank you, I don't want to lose my partner, not yet.” She whispers to herself, clenching her fist and running to catch up with Ash.

* * *

 

Ash and the others rejoin the group when the Nevermore screeches overhead. Jaune point to the sky, “Guys, that thing circling back. What are we going to do?” “We could fight it?” Ash calmly deadpans, but when everyone gives him a questioning look, he raises his hands in defense, “Or we could not.” “There's no point in dilly-dallying, our objective is just in front of us,” Weiss states, gesturing to the other relics in the forest temple. Ruby nods in approval, “She's right. Our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things.” Jaune looks at Ruby with approval, “Run and live. That's an idea I can get behind.” Everyone nods in agreement and picks a relic from the pedestals leaving Ash, Erica, Onyx, and Rain without a relic to take back.

Pyrrha looks down at her relic and moves to hand it to Ash, “Here take it.” Ash puts his hand in his pocket and feels the King chess piece resting safely in the cloth, “Don’t worry,” he lies, “Ozpin probably forgot to place a few extra Relics. I’m sure we'll be fine.” Pyrrha is unsure about Ash’s answer but accepts it anyway. Behind everyone, the Deathstalker’s struggling makes cracks in its icy prison and the Beringel slowly gets up and roars at the initiates.

“It’s time we left,” Ren declares and everyone nods in agreement, following after Ruby. Yang abruptly stops running and watches her sister make a heroic pose on a slanted rock. Blake and Ash see this and stop next to her, “Yang? What's wrong?” Blake asks worriedly. “Oh, nothing,” Yang replies calmly.


	6. Initiation Part 3 - Teams Stand United

The initiates all run out of the forest and towards the ruins of what appears to use to be a castle, the Nevermore flying in behind them. They all hide behind stone pillars as the Nevermore begins to circle the tower. “Well, that's just great!” Yang yells in exasperation. Ash glances behind the pillars and looks past the castle at the cliff behind it, “If we could distract the Nevermore we can make a break for the cliff!” Onyx presses his back against the pillar, “I think we would be a lot safer here!” As he says these words the Beringel and Deathstalker burst out of the forest with a loud roar. “Everybody move!” Ash yells making everyone break for a bridge going to the castle, the Nevermore turning to face them.

“Nora, distract it!” Ren calls out, the orange haired girl grinning with excitement. The Nevermore flaps its wings and shoots more feathers at the girl, but she jumps and dodges all of them. Nora then stops and pulls out Magenhild, from her back and fires pink canisters with hearts on them at the Nevermore, which explode in bursts of pink light. With the Nevermore distracted, the Ren and Blake engage the incoming Deathstalker and Weiss uses her glyphs to pick up Nora and propel them back to the group. and Ash runs around the Grimm and flips out Scattered fragment and starts swinging the blades over his head to hold back the Beringel.

The Beringel raises one of its arms in defense and Rain and Erica brandish their weapons and fire at its exposed underside. “It's working!” Ash cries out when the Beringel uses its free arm to grab a large rock from behind it and flings it at the Ash. The boy reforms the sword and holds it sideways in front of him when Onyx pushes him out of the way and puts his shields together, the weapon glowing blue near the center.

Onyx’s shield takes the full force of the rock head on and the large boulder breaks from the impact. A gold glow flushes down from Onyx’s arm to his whole body, charging it and his body in some way. He looks back at the stunned teens who look at him with gaping mouths and shrugs his arms, “What? The boulder is gone, let’s go!” He asks with a raised eyebrow. The rest of them say nothing and they holster their weapons and run to catch up with the others.

* * *

 

The rest of the initiates make it to the bridge with Blake, Ren and Nora lagging behind to fight the Deathstalker. The Nevermore suddenly flies out of nowhere and flies straight through the bridge, splitting it and the groups in two. Ruby, Weiss, Yang, Ash, and Erica on one end with the Nevermore and Pyrrha, Ren, Blake, Onyx and Rain on the other end with the Deathstalker.

Nora and Jaune end up in the middle of both groups and have no way to get to the other side. Jaune watches Pyrrha take on the Deathstalker and looks to Nora in desperation, “We have to help them!” Nora gets a sinister smirk and takes out her grenade launcher from her back, knocking Jaune over in the process. She spins her weapon by the handle and the back ends with the trigger extends so she can hold it with two hands and the body and barrel of the weapon come together to make the bludgeon for the weapon. She holds it overhead and winds up a big smash on the bridge in front of her. The stone upturns behind her to she watches as Jaune is catapulted over her to the other side.

Nora playfully puts her hand overhead to shade her eyes and plants her feet on the back end of the bludgeon and fires a grenade behind her and she flies forward with a smile. As Jaune lands on the other end of the bridge, Nora winds up and smashes her hammer on the Deathstalker. Her attack has little effect however and the Deathstalker knocks her back into Blake knocking her over the edge of the bridge. The black-haired girl spots a smaller bridge to the side of the castle and fires her chain sickle at it. The blade sticks to the stone and she swings over to the other ends and right into the path of the Nevermore. She activates her semblance and flashes forward onto the back of the Grimm and swings her sword against its back before jumping off back to the castle.

Blake lands next to Yang who stands with Ruby and Weiss on the top edge of the castle with Ash and Erica a level below them. The group watches as the Nevermore circles back around and flies towards them. “It’s tougher than it looks.” Blake tells the others as and Yang flicks her hands down to arm her weapon, “Then let’s hit it with everything we’ve got!”

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Erica morph their weapons and for ranged attacks and fire shot after shot at the Nevermore. The beast shrugs off all of their shots and flies straight into the stone support of the castle, knocking it down. The girls and Ash all run up the falling debris with Ruby, Yang, and Erica using the recoil of their weapons, Weiss using her semblance and Blake and Ash running up the stone. They reach the bridge and watch the Nevermore circle around them. “I have a plan. Cover me!” Ruby announces and she and Weiss run off to rejoin the fight.

Ash and Erica move to help Ruby when a large black arm and grabs Erica and pulls her back making the girl drop her weapon. “Erica!” Ash cries out and he looks over the edge to see the Beringel running across the bridge with Erica in its right hand. The girl struggles in the grip of the monster to no avail and looks back at Ash. “Ash! Help me!” Erica calls out to her partner as she is held against her will. Ash grits his teeth and he unsheathes out Scattered Fragment, grabs Erica’s gun and wraps his unlocked blade around a stone pillar and swings himself forward after the Grimm. Onyx and Rain watch the Grimm jump down from behind look at each other and nod, Onyx putting his shields together and holding it out in front of him while Rain skids to a stop. She then runs back and flips onto the shield with both feet, legs bent like she is about to jump when Onyx and his joint shield starts to glow gold and when Rain jumps off, a strong shockwave propels her forward. Onyx, on the other hand, is slightly blown back from the recoil, but he backflips in midair to land on his feet and runs after his partner.

Rain reaches the Beringel the same time as Ash and the two of them extend their blades and slash in an X shape. However, the Beringel uses the arm holding Erica to block the attack and their blades barely graze her arm. Ash and Rain jump back and Ash hold his arm out to stop Rain from attacking again, “It's got, Erica. We have to get her away first before we go all out.” Onyx catches up with the group and flick his wrists down, similar to Yang, and the edge of his shields turn so they are over his knuckles, “OK, so how do you propose we do this?”

Ash activate his semblances and his eyes dart wildly at the surrounding area, looking for anything that could help them. The Beringel suddenly roars and he sees small white cracks on the bridge they are standing on. “I got an idea,” he tells the other two, “You two distract it and I’ll get Erica. Once you do, get off the bridge as fast as you can, alright?” Onyx and Rain nod in agreement and the trio charge at the Beringel.

* * *

 

On the other side of the cliff, Jaune and Pyrrha slash at the Deathstalker’s claws while Nora shoots grenades at it. The Grimm shrugs off all of the attacks with its claws and pushes the initiates back. Ren quickly runs up and around the creature’s tail and fires at the joint of the stinger. “Ren!” Nora cries when her friend is flung from the creature’s tail and hits the back of his head against a stone wall before falling to the ground.

Jaune looks up at the stinger and sees it loosely hanging on thanks to Ren’s attack and formulates a small plan. “Pyrrha!” He cries. “Done,” she replies as she throws her shield at the stinger joint, slicing it off and bouncing against a pillar and flying back to her. Pyrrha catches the shield while the stinger falls and spikes the head of the Deathstalker. “Nora, nail it!” Jaune motions. The orange haired girl jumps onto the shield of Pyrrha and propels herself up with a grenade blast.

Nora flies into the air with a smile on her face and boosts her fall with another grenade shot, spinning in a circle before smashing down right in the stinger. The force of the impact shatters the shell of the Deathstalker and breaks the bridge under it, sending Jaune and Pyrrha into the air. Nora flips off the Deathstalker with her hammer and the three collectively fall onto the ground and Ren walks over clutching his side until he falls over with the others. Jaune catches his breath, stands up and looks back at the other groups as they try to fight their respective Grimm.

* * *

 

On the other side of the castle, Onyx runs to meet the Beringel, and when it smashes its free arm down he raises his shields and takes the hit, causing the ground under them to crack. With the Beringel distracted, Rain runs up next to it and slashes at the arm carrying Erica. The monster roars loudly, dropping the girl for a second letting Ash run in and catch her. “Guys we got her! Get back now!” Onyx pushes the Beringel off him, knocking it over and giving him and Rain time to run away from the fight. Ash jumps away from the Beringel and sets Erica down behind her, “Stay here, I got this.” He tells her reassuringly. The girl nods and Ash unlocks Scattered Fragments blades and swings them over his head, and lets out a grunt as he swings them from side to side. The blades tear apart the stone bridge surrounding the Beringel and the Grimm flails at the air as the stone breaks under itself, sending it falling into the ravine below. He retracts the blades with a flick of his wrist and looks back at Erica. Taking out her weapon, he holds it out to her with a smile, “Hey try not to lose this OK.” The girl takes her weapon with the nod of her head and the group looks up at the sound of shotgun blasts rings overhead.

* * *

 

Yang stands on the top of the castle, firing shot after shot at the Nevermore. One of the blasts hits the monster in the eye and it changing its flight to charge straight at Yang. It opens its beak for an attack but the blonde huntress jumps into its mouth, holding it open as she emphasizes each shot with a shout, “I! HOPE! YOU’RE! HUNGRY!”  Yang looks back and does a backflip out of the Nevermore’s mouth and lands on the bridge, the Nevermore flying into the cliff over another stone ruin. Yang looks back to the group as Weiss dashes past her and jumps into the air. The heiress stabs her rapier into the ground, causing a large patch of ice that holds the Nevermore down by its tail feathers and back flips away back to the group. Blake stands on top of a pillar and changes her weapon into its chain-sickle form, throwing it to the other side of the bridge where Yang catches it. The two pulls back on the black ribbon holding the weapon together and Ruby jumps onto the blade of Crescent Rose and shoots herself onto the ribbon. Weiss creates one of her glyphs for Ruby but with a wave of her hand, the glyph turns black and holds Ruby in place when she lands. “Of course, you would come up with this plan,” Weiss says to Ruby as she lands next to her. “Think you can make the shot?” asks Ruby. “Humph, can I?” Weiss smugly replies. Ruby worriedly looks at the heiress but Weiss shouts back before she can say anything, “Of course I can!”

Ruby looks back at the Nevermore and cocks her gun. Weiss pushes her hands out and the glyph turns red and it and the ribbon shoot Ruby forward like a slingshot. Ruby flies through the air repeatedly firing shots to gain more speed and catches the Nevermore with the blade of her weapon and lands on the side of the cliff. Weiss creates a trail of glyphs going up for Ruby and she starts running up the cliff pulling the Nevermore behind her. When she reaches the top of the cliff, the head of the Nevermore got caught against the top, but a shot from Crescent Rose effectively decapitates it and Ruby backflips through the air, lands on top of the cliff with Crescent Rose bent against her, the head landing soon after. The rest of the group looks up as the body of the Nevermore slowly falls from the air. “Well, that was a thing.” Yang plainly states.

* * *

 

Everyone made it back to Beacon without any serious injuries thanks to Erica and they all gather in the auditorium as Ozpin announces the new teams. “Russel Thrush. Cardin Winchester. Dove Bronzewing. Sky Lark. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team CRDL (Cardinal), led by Cardin Winchester!” The team name appears on the screen behind Ozpin with portraits of the members over the first letter of their names. Ash waits on the side with the rest of the group as they await their turns.” Jaune Arc. Lie Ren. Pyrrha Nikos. Nora Valkyrie.” The four walks up and stand in front of Ozpin with their arms behind their backs, “The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team JNPR (Juniper). Led by... Jaune Arc!” Said boy looks at Ozpin with a surprised face and Pyrrha playful punches his shoulder, only for the boy to fall over. “And finally: Blake Belladonna. Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RWBY (Ruby). Led by... Ruby Rose!” Weiss looks at the younger girl with a shocked expression and Yang runs over to give her sister a hug.

Ozpin turns and looks down at the crowd of students, “Normally that would be all the teams that passed the initiation,” Ash’s heart dropped at that statement, “But this year, something special has happened and it deserved to be recognized. Now then, will Ashton Valdis, Onyx Fractan, Erica Thurium, and Rain Aqdrios please come up on stage.” The four look at each other with the same shocked expression but go up on stage anyway. When they stand in front of Ozpin, he motions with his hand to bring something out, “Please reveal the chess pieces you found in the forest. I know the four of you have one.” Murmurs could be heard from the crowd as Ash looks down the line at the others. ‘They all have one too?’ He wonders to himself. He slowly reaches into his pocket and when pulls out his silver king piece, he is surprised to find the others holding the same silver kings that he has. “The Silver Kings were designed to be extra pieces for initiates with exceptional talent to find.” Ozpin tells the group, “Normally, I would assign the silver piece holder to the highest scoring group of that year. But this year, the four of you have found all of the king pieces and have come back safely. In light of this, it is only fair that the four of you become your own team.” Ozpin motions to the screen behind him and the four look up to see their own first initials on the screen spelling out a team name. “From this day forward, the four of you shall be known as Team AERO (Aero), led by... Ashton Valdis!” Said boy looks at Ozpin and the headmaster gives a small nod to the boy. The rest of Ash’s teammates look at the boy with small smiles of approval, “I guess that makes sense.” Onyx says to the group, “After all you got to know each one of us individually and made the plan to save Erica on the bridge. It makes sense that you become our leader.” Ash’s eyes widen in realization and takes a deep breath as he looks over at his team. “Alright then,” he says as extends his fist out to the team, “From this day forward, I promise to be a good leader to all of you!” The rest of the team fist bumps Ash in return solidifying their newfound bond as a team. “Let's make this year one to remember guys!” Ash cheers to his new team. “Yeah!” The other three shout in response.

Ozpin looks at the team before him, a small smile crossing his face.  _ ‘I knew something special would happen when I let you into this school early, Mr. Valdis. Let’s just hope that putting the four of you together as a team was the right choice to make. This school… no all of Remnant depends on it.’ _


	7. New day

The light from the rising sun peaks out over the walls of Beacon Academy. At the same time, an alarm goes off in one of the dorm rooms of the students. A boy blindly brings his arms down on his desk, groping for the snooze button of his clock. He finally hits it and the ringing stops, the boy getting up from his bed and stretches his arms. Wearing the same clothes from the first night, Ash rubs his eyes as he looks around his dorm, seeing two of his new teammates, Onyx and Rain still asleep appearing to not have heard the alarm. Behind him someone yawns and he turns around to see Erica sit up in on top of the bunk bed, rubbing her eyes as well. “Good Morning Erica. “Ash says to her and she slowly opens her eyes completely and looks at him. “Is your arm doing OK?” He asks, concerned about her.

Erica rubs her left arm gingerly feeling the bandages under her pajamas. Despite having been healed by her semblance beforehand, her arm was severely crushed by the Beringal’s grip and her aura suffered greatly. The end result was the bandage being wrapped around her arm for support while her aura slowly came back to heal it. “It's not that bad honestly.” She says to Ash reassuringly, “At this rate, it should be healed by the end of the week.” Some rustling could be heard from the other side of the room and the two turn to see Rain sitting up and bed and looking down at them. “Why can’t you use your semblance to heal it the rest of the way?” She asks Erica. “Your semblance is healing, right? What's stopping you from using it?” Erica jumps down from the top bunk and stretches her arms, “My semblance has the side effect of being a sedative. I would put myself to sleep before I could heal myself entirely.” Ash nods his head, remembering when she healed her during initiation. “She's right actually. I almost fell asleep during initiation when she was healing me.”

Rain shrugs his shoulders and looks outside at the rising sun, squinting at the light. “Ugh, what time is it?” Ash looks over to his clock on his bedside and scratches the back of his head and exhales an exasperated breath. “It’s… 5:30 in the morning.” Rain and Erica look at Ash with a deadpan look and he raises his hand in defense. “Hey, I don’t know about you two, but tend to wake up really early!” Rain and Erica look at each other before shrugging their shoulders and go over to the closet to change. Ash waits until the girls walk into the bathroom and close the door behind them before he jumps back into bed. He pulls out a gray notebook and starts writing in it, taking a second in between sentences to think.

“What’s that supposed to be?” A voice asks Ash and he looks down to see Onyx looking up at him from his bed with a raised eyebrow. Ash puts closes his notebook and puts it away under his pillow and waves Onyx off, “Its nothing. Don’t worry about it.” Onyx sits up in bed and keeps his gaze on Ash. “Isn’t it the leader's job to trust his teammates?” “Isn’t it the teammate's job to follow their leaders?” Ash retorts and the two boys have a small stare down until the bathroom door opens again. The two boys turn to see Erica and Rain step back out in their uniforms which were a brown jacket with gold on the edges over a tan vest and white blouse. They had plaid skirts and black leggings that went down to feet, black heels and a red ribbon around their necks. When the girls walk out, Rain uncomfortably tugs at the ribbon while Erica smooths and fixes her uniform the best she can.

Ash and Onyx look at their teammate with different expressions, the former with a blank stare while the latter and a smug grin on his face. “Wow, you guys look great!” Onyx says out loud, and Rain gives her partner a threatening glare, making him drop his grin and look to the side, whistling innocently. Ash clears his throat and moves off his bed to get his own clothes from the closet. “It suits you.” He tells his partner as he passes by her and goes into the bathroom. As soon as the door lock clicks behind Ash, Rain and Onyx turn to Erica, the girl dropping her glare, “How’s his aura?” They both ask at the same time, the group remembering the small crackle in it they saw the other day. Erica took out her scroll and swiped through the screens until the aura meters of the team appeared. She enlarges the screen and holds it up for the other two to see and when they all come closer to look at it, they see Ash’s aura level is the lowest out of the team and the bar is blinking red in danger.

Rain looked to the bathroom door with a worried look on her face. “That Beringel really did a number on him didn’t it?” She thought aloud. Erica cringed as she remembered the Beringel smashing his prone body to the ground by his leg, over and over again. “You have no idea…” SHe lamented when the bathroom knob started to shake. The group turned to Ash as he walked out with his uniform on, which was a black suit similar to the girl’s with gold trimmings over a blue vest and white shirt. It had matching dress pants and a red tie that Ash was currently fixing around his neck. “Ugh, stupid little…” He looks up and raises an eyebrow at the strange looks his teammates were giving him. “What, this is the first uniform I’ve had to wear. I’m not used to this kind of things.” He sees something in Erica’s hand and he tilted his head to see his own aura meter in the red and his eyes widened in understanding. “Ohh. That's why...” He breathes.

Rain steps forward with a tentative hand out to Ash. “Look, Ash, I think you should rest up a bit more. We have the time so....” She trails off when, Ash closes his eyes and takes a long deep breath, his green aura crackling in response. Erica feels her scroll vibrate and when she holds it up, her eyes widen as Ash’s aura level suddenly skyrocketed, returning to the maximum in just a few seconds. Ash opens his eyes and smirks when he sees his teammate’s stunned faces. “Don’t worry about it. My aura is fine see?” The rest of the group lets out a breath of relief and Rain looks at Ash with an irritated expression. “You know, you could have told us beforehand that you could do that.” She crosses her arms and tilts her hip to the side. “Maybe we wouldn’t have worried as much as we did.”

Ash’s small turns into a straight face and he eyes slightly widen. He puts a hand to his chin and tilts his head to the side. “Actually, we don’t know each other that well do we?” The members of Team AERO turn and look at each other as that fact started to set in. “We only just met each other the other day. Aside from fighting in the cliff and the forest we know nothing about each other.” Ash continues and he goes over to his bed and sits down. Erica fidgets and plays with her hands before climbing on to her bed and sitting down as well. “You’re right. I think if we want this team to work, we have to trust each other.” Rain nods her head and goes to sit on her bed as well. “Out on the battlefield, we’re going to rely on one another to watch our backs. I’d personally like it if I could trust the people I’m with.” Onyx looks around at his teammates and sighs while leaning back onto his bed. “If that’s the case, then what should we do about it? Our trust in each other I mean.” Everyone in the room turns to Ash who looks around at their expecting faces. “What if we just talked?” He suggests and he pulls out his scroll and looks at the time. “We have a few more hours before classes start. I say we use that time to get to know each other.”

The E, R, and O of the team looks all turn away hesitantly. Ash looks around at their expressions and slouches down on his bed. “Look I’m not saying tell everything about yourself.” Ash explains to his team, “I’m just saying that it would be better if we knew more about each other. Other than what we saw from each other during the fight.” Ash still sees the hesitation in his teammate's eyes and he sighs and sits straight up again, leaning back on the ladder of the bunk bed. “How about I start?” He sighs and his teammates turn to look at him. “I’m Ashton Valdis, but you can just call me Ash.” He takes out his scroll and pulls up a picture of his sword and shows it to his teammates. “And this is my weapon. It’s called Scattered Fragment and its a longsword that can extend into a bladed chain whip.” Everyone looks at their leader with an unsure expression until Erica raises her hand, making everyone turn and looks at her. “My name is Erica Thurium. My weapon is an assault rifle that can extend into a High Caliber Sniper Rifle called Aruthorn with special dust rounds that I can use with it.” Rain and Onyx still look hesitant until Rain pulls up a picture of the claws she used the other day. “I’m Rain Aqdrios. My weapons are dual claws that I wear over my wrists. I call them the Ocean claws ” Onyx is the last one to get a picture of his shields and he shows it to the team. “My full name is Onyx Fractan. The shields you saw me use the other day were twin Hex-guard Shields that I can put together into a single shield.” Ash looks around at his team and smiles when he feels a bond starting to form with his team.  _ ‘It's a start at least.’  _ He thinks happily and for the rest of the time, the team went around the room, telling small things about each other.

* * *

 

Team RWBY wakes up later in the day, thanks to Ruby’s whistle and while their fixing and decorating their room, they hear laughing coming from down the hall. Ruby stops what she's doing and looks in the direction of the laughing. “Was that Ash?” She asks no one in particular, and Yang looks to her sister, “Yeah I think it was?” Weiss scoffs and readjusts one of the picture frames in the room. “Why does it matter? It's just Ash, he’s nothing special.” Ruby and Yang say nothing, remembering how cold he was to her the other day while Blake looks at her team with a raised eyebrow. Though reluctant, the team continues with their day, trying not to upset the ice queen anymore.


	8. Badge and the Burden

After getting their own introductions out of the way, Team AERO spent the time they had talking more about themselves, sharing little things about themselves to the others. It got to the point where when the conversation somehow got to the weather and Onyx made a joke about Rain, the group laughed like they were close friends. Ash looked around his room and he was happy to see that he didn’t see just teammates, but friends he would be happy to be around. It wasn’t until Erica looked at her scroll for the time did the joy suddenly fade. “Classes start at 9:00 right?” She asks the team and before anyone can react they hear Weiss yell from the other room. “It’s 8:55 you dunce!”

Ash runs to their door and opens it up in time to see Weiss running out of her room. Team JNPR and the rest of Team RWBY stick their heads out of their respective and watch the heiress run away. “To class!” Ruby cheers and she runs out if the room after Weiss, with Blake and Yang following behind her. Ash and his team run after the girls while Jaune groans. “Class…” and falls over into the hallway.

* * *

 

Ozpin watches from the side of the courtyard as the three teams run to the main school building. He takes a sip of his coffee and Glynda walks up behind him, looking down at her watch. Ozpin’s gaze focuses on Ash and his team and for a brief moment, he could see another group of people in the same position as them. Suddenly, the person that replaced Ash looks straight at Ozpin and a mad grin slowly creases the person’s face.

Ozpin’s eyes widen as the face contorts and ages rapidly, the hair sticking out and a beard growing out of the person’s face. The face turns into one of madness and it starts cackling wildly, making Ozpin show a slight sign of fear. Glynda looks down at her boss’ hand and sees the coffee shaking within its cup. “Professor Ozpin? Is something wrong?” She asks cautiously, now used to seeing her usually passive boss showing such emotion. Ozpin takes a long swig of his coffee and when he brings his arm back down, it is no longer shaking. “Yes, Professor Goodwitch. Everything is fine.” He turns around and walks away, trying to forget about the face he just saw.

* * *

 

_‘What is this class?’_ Ash distantly thinks to himself, while spinning a pen in his left hand. Although there was a blunderbuss with a war ax on the stock on display over detailed descriptions of the various Grimm on the blackboard, the teacher wasn’t very engaging to the class. “Monsters! Demons... Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!” Chuckled the professor, Peter Port as he was called. The class said nothing in response, so the professor cleared his throat and continued the lecture.

"Uhhhh... And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying, Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces! And that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses… Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world! That is what you are training to become." Ash’s eyes narrow as he analyzes what the professor said. ‘Protect ourselves from the world? He can’t mean just the Grimm can he?’ The professor trails off into a story and Ash tune him out and looks to his team sitting next to him, and what he sees only making him even more tired. Erica was actually taking notes in a small notebook, Rain was trying to do the same but she looked like she was about to doze off and Onyx was already asleep with his head down.

Ash looked down at Team RWBY who sat in the front row and watched Ruby make occasional jokes to Weiss during the story. The for the entire duration of the story, Ash can see Weiss getting more and more irritated at Ruby’s antics and by the time the story ends, Ash could see her visibly shaking with anger. “The moral of the story?” The professor finishes, “A true Huntsmen must be honorable, dependable, strategic, well-educated, and wise.” Port looks to the students and gestures to a locked cage that was in the corner of the room. “So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?” To Ash’s surprise, Weiss and Erica stand up and raise their hands. “I do sir!” They both say at the same time.

The entire class stops and looks at the two girls in amazement. Port strokes his chin with a raised eyebrow, intrigued by the strange turn of events. “Well now, this is a something I haven’t encountered before. Miss. Schnee, Miss. Thurium, you’re both welcome to fight the Grimm. However, the two of you must work together.” Weiss and Erica look at each other and nod their heads as Port gestures to the cage and everyone can see two red eyes, glowing through the one opening it had. “Now step forward, and face your opponent!”

Weiss and Erica quickly got changed into their combat uniforms and they take positions on the other side of the room. Weiss held her rapier out in front of her and Erica leaned back as the changed her weapon into a sniper rifle. Ash looked at Erica’s outfit, now that it wasn’t covered up by the cloak. She wore a light pink shirt under a dark red short-sleeved jacket, black jeans, and dark red combat boots.

Professor Port held his blunderbuss like an ax and held it over the cage. “Alright!” He cheers. “Let the match… Begin!” At those words he swung his ax down, breaking the lock on the cage. A Boarbatusk suddenly jumps out of the cage and charges at the two girls. Ash watches with anticipation as his partner and his slight enemy enter combat together.


	9. Badge and the Burden Part 2 - The Pedestal

Weiss immediately jumps out of the way of the Boarbatusk as it rolls towards her, but Erica backs against the wall and fires two quick bursts of bullets at the Boarbatusk. Unfortunately, the bullets ricochet off the Grimm’s bone armor, not doing anything to slow it down. Erica quickly jumps away to the side as the Boarbatusk comes barreling into the wall where she was, cracks forming in the plaster. “A narrow dodge from Ms. Thurium!” Professor Port commentates from the side.  The sound of the Boarbatusk hitting the wall wakes Onyx up. The shock makes him bang his leg against the top of the desk. “Oww Dang it!” He reaches down and rubs his leg tenderly, tilting his head to look up and Ash and Rain. “Hey what going on? What was that?” Ash points down to the front of the classroom and Onyx looks over the edge of the desk to the battle. “Whoa. You think that Erica is going to be OK? She has a cast on.” The white-haired boy shrugs his shoulders and focuses on the fight in front of him. “She’ll be fine. Its Weiss I’m actually concerned about.” He responds calmly. Onyx and Rain look at their leader with confusion, but another shot from Erica turns their attention back to the fight.

The Boarbatusk turns around, where Weiss and Erica held fighting stances against the monster. “Ha ha! Wasn’t expecting that weren’t you?” Port chuckles to the girls. Erica and Weiss look at each other and separate from each other to slowly circle the Boarbatusk, both aiming their weapons to take at the exposed part of its body. The Boarbatusk shakes its head in anger and charges toward Weiss, who thrusts her weapon forward to meet the Grimm. Seeing her chance, Erica slides the handle back to change Aruthorn into a sniper-rifle form. But during the transformation sequence, Weiss stabs her weapon into the Grimm but it tilts its head and catches her rapier in its tusks, throwing her to the side as Weiss tries to hold on. By the time Aruthorn finishes transforming, Erica can’t get a good shot at the Grimm with Weiss in the way. "Come on, Weiss, show it who's boss!" Ruby shouts from the sidelines, making the heiress glare at the younger girl. The Boarbatusk suddenly throws its head back, making Weiss let go of her weapon which dislodged itself from the Grimm’s claws and is thrown to the other end of the hall.

"Oh-ho! Now, what will you do without your weapon?" Port chuckles again when he sees the situation. Weiss focuses on her rapier at the other end of the room before staring intently at the Boarbatusk. The Grimm grunts and charges at the girls again, but Erica distracts it with a burst of bullets while Weiss dodges around the side of the Grimm. With the Grimm running away from her, Weiss takes the opportunity to go for her rapier, sliding as she picks it up and points it at the Boarbatusk.

“Weiss go for its belly! There’s no armor underneath it!” Ruby yells from the side, trying to help her partner. “Stop telling me what to do!” Weiss shouts back at her, making the younger girl frown. Erica runs next to Weiss and nudges the heiress in the side. “Watch out, it's coming.” She tells Weiss. As she says that, the Boarbatusk jumps into the air and starts spinning rapidly. When it lands back on the ground, its a rolling ball of bone that barrels towards the two girls. Weiss instantly conjures up a black glyph in front of the Boarbatusk what stops it and knocks it on its back. She makes another black glyph in the air at an angle and jumps up onto it. The glyph spins as it propels her forward at the Grimm and she stabs her rapier into its stomach. The Boarbatusk writhes and tries to get back up, but Erica takes aim with her weapon and fires a well-placed shot at the underside of its mouth, making it fall limp.

Weiss pulls her rapier out of the Boarbatusk as it starts to disintegrate and Erica shifts her weapon back into its assault rifle form and clips it back to her belt. “A brilliant display of what a true Huntsman should be! We have some exceptional students with us this year!” Port congratulates the girls and everyone in the classroom claps in response. A small bell is heard throughout the room and Port raises an eyebrow. “It seems that's all the time we have for today. Class dismissed!” At that, everyone picks up their things and starts walking out of the room. Weiss looks back at her teammates with a glare and walks out of the room before everyone else. “What’s her problem?” Jaune asks out loud and everyone shrugs their shoulders. Ruby, Erica, and Ash look to the retreating figure of the heiress and they all walk out of the room after her. Onyx and Rain watch their leader leave and Ash turns around back to them before they can say anything. “I’ll be back. I’m just gonna check on Weiss.” Weiss looks and glares at her team before walking out of the room before everyone else. “What's her problem?” Jaune asks out loud and Ruby looks at her partner concerningly.

* * *

 

Weiss turns the corner of the hallway, but Ruby runs up behind her. “Weiss, what's going on? What's wrong with-” “What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?!” Weiss suddenly yells back. “You’re supposed to be the leader but you've done nothing but act like a child!” Ruby is taken aback and stutters. “B-But what d-did I d-do?” “THAT'S IT! YOU HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING! I’ve studied and trained for years to be the leader of my team. But NO! YOU had to be picked as the leader!”

Weiss turns around and storms off, leaving Ruby who looks down in shame and sorrow. “Maybe Ozpin made a mistake,” she laments in shame, weakly kicking the ground. “Well… We don’t know for sure.” Someone says around the corner. Ruby quickly turns around to see Ash leaning against the wall. “Remember, Ozpin picked both of us to be leaders and we’re both got in Beacon for the same reason.” He pushes off the wall and looks down at Ruby with a calm face. “If Ozpin made a mistake, then he wouldn’t have picked us back then.”

Ruby, almost close to tears, looks up at Ash with shaking eyes. “H-How do you k-know? I-Its not like w-we can ask him.” The sound of footsteps is heard from behind the two and a voice makes them turn around. “Well, all the two of you need to do is ask,” Ozpin says to them, coffee cup in his hand.

* * *

 

Weiss walks out of the school building seething with rage until she comes across Port standing on a balcony watching the sunset. He turns at the sound of her approaching and smiles under his beard. “AH Miss Schnee! What do I owe the pleasure?” “I... I enjoyed your lecture!” Weiss immediately responded, but Port raised one of his eyebrows at her. “Hmm, is something wrong Miss Schnee? You seem troubled.” Weiss looks away with an irritated face and crosses her arms. “It's just… that girl! She doesn't have the training for her job. She… She’s not qualified for this!” Port strokes his beard as he listens to his student. “So, you believe that you should have been the leader of Team RWBY?” “Exactly!” Weiss shouts angrily and before Port can answer, a third voice joins the conversation. “No, that would be a bad idea.” The voice says and Weiss spins around to see Erica walking towards her.

* * *

 

“What do you mean?” Ruby asks Ozpin, who spins his coffee in his mug. “It is only the first day of classes Miss Rose. I’ve made many mistakes in the past, but my decision to appoint you as a leader isn’t one of them.” He tells her reassuringly. On the side, Ash raised his hand to get the attention of Ozpin. “What about me?” He asks the headmaster, “As far as I can tell I’m the youngest in my team, and the rest of them are pretty capable fighters. Why did you appoint me as the leader out of all of them?” Ozpin turns to the boy and answers with unwavering confidence. “I made you the leader because your teammates seem to trust you. I heard what they said after the initiation when I made you the leader. It was your plan in the end that helped you defeat the Beringel. They see you as someone they can rely on if things get out of hand.” Ash slowly nods his head, satisfied with the answer but Ruby still looked unconvinced.

* * *

 

“What are you talking about?!” Weiss shouts in response to her teacher. “In all my time I’ve been working for Ozpin, he has never led me astray. I trust him a great deal.” Port says confidently. “Does that mean you blindly follow him around?! Even after seeing my skills!? Weiss yells angrily. Erica scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Yeah, and that skill is equal to your bad attitude.” “Excuse me?!” Weiss whirls around and shouts at Erica. Port clears his throat and gets the girl’s attention. “Miss Schnee, while your skills are exceptional, your mentality is not. I see a girl who has had everything handed down to her on a silver platter.” Weiss crosses her arms in defiance. “That's not...” Her arms lower slowly and she looks away embarrassed. “Well... not entirely.”

* * *

 

“Being the team leader isn’t a title to uphold its a badge you wear constantly. If you’re not doing your best, then why would others follow you.”  Ozpin tells Ruby and Ash who nod in understanding. “The two of you have been trusted with great responsibility. I hope you both uphold it.” Ozpin says those final words of inspiration and walks away, leaving Ruby and Ash to themselves. Ruby looks down, unsure of herself until Ash puts a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’re going to be alright.” He says to her confidently and the girl nods her head in response.

* * *

 

“So, the outcome wasn’t in your favor?” Port says to Weiss. “Do you think acting out in anger is going to change it?” Weiss looks down solemnly and calms down as Port continues. “Instead of complaining about what you don’t have, focus and cherish what you do. You can’t be the best leader; then be the best teammate you can be.” Weiss smiles and looks back at Erica, who smiles at the heiress.

* * *

 

Later that night, Ash walks back to his room after a long day at school. ‘They see you as someone they can rely on if things get out of hand.’ Ozpin’s words ring in his ears as he walks down the hall. “My team is going to rely on me..”  He looks down at his hand and clenches his fist. “I wonder if they believe in me?” He turns the corner and accidentally runs into a wall of white, making him stumble backward. He covers his face and looks up to find Weiss covering her own face. “Oh, it's you.” Weiss coldly remarks when she sees Ash. The boy scowls in response but takes a deep breath and moves his hand away from his face. “Look Weiss I… ” She raises her hand and stops him mid-sentence. “Stop.” She says firmly. “Look I know I haven’t been the nicest teammate. But if you stop being so childish, I think I can help you be a better leader.” Ash stays silent as Weiss says words of encouragement, but his expression changes to confusion when she reaches the end of her speech. “Uhh, Weiss were not teammates. You know that right?”

Her face turns red in embarrassment and she crosses her arms angrily. “O-Of course I know that idiot! I’m just… ” She looks away and starts mumbling. “Practicing what I’m going to tell Ruby later… ” Ash’s eyes widen in shock as he sees a rare sight, a Schnee embarrassed. He fights the urge to smirk and turns around while scratching the back of his head. “Look Ice Queen, sorry about what happened the other day. I wasn’t having the greatest morning and I took it out on you.” Bow it was Weiss’ turn to be shocked, seeing that one shred of openness in the boy. She opens her mouth to say more, but catches herself and turns the other way. “Wha-Whatever. Just go to sleep, we have classes tomorrow.”

She holds her chin up and walks past Ash down the hallway into her room. The gray-haired boy watched the pale girl walk to her room and turns to look at his own door. He puts his hand on the doorknob and grips it tightly, now having a plan for what to do for his team, opens it and walks in.


	10. Jaunedice Part-1

Jaune stands in the center of a stadium, weakly holding up his sword and shield as another student, who he remembers as Cardin Winchester charges at him with a large mace in his hand. Jauenrises his shield to block the attack but get pushed back when the mace hits him and his shield gets knocked out if his hands. Jaune takes up his sword and tries to slash at his opponent, who smirks and sidesteps his attack. Jaune tries a downward slash but his opponent holds his mace to the side and blocks his blade with the handle of his mace.

Teams RWBY, AERO and the rest of JNPR sit together and watch the fight from the stands, all of them wincing as Jaune is thrown across the stadium by his opponent. “This… This is a fight, right? Not like a one-sided beatdown?” Ash asks the others with a hesitant voice. No one responds as they all flinch as Jaune takes another heavy hit. Rain looks at Pyrrha with a raised eyebrow. “He is the leader of your team right?” Pyrrha looks down and Ren and Nora give each other unsure looks when Jaune's opponent raised his mace over his fallen form when a loud buzzer rings and Cardin stops mid-swing.

Goodwitch walks onto the stage and the mace-wielder rests his weapon on his shoulder and steps back from Jaune. "Good job to the both of you. Mr. Winchester, while this is a combat school, the object of sparring isn’t to wound your opponent." Winchester scoffs and walks away grumbling, "Speak for yourself..." Jaune gets up from the ground and Goodwitch looks down at him with her arms crossed. “Mr. Arc, I suggest you watch your aura meter more carefully. It will help you decide when to take a more ‘defensive’ approach.” Jaune reaches into his back pocket and pull out his scroll and sees the meter representing his aura level blinking dark red bar. He let out a disheartened sigh as Goodwitch turned to the rest of the class.“The Vytal Festival is only a couple months away so be sure to practice. Those who will compete will be the ones to represent the entirety of Vale!" The class starts clapping and cheering at the mention of the Vytal Festival while Jaune hangs his head in shame and Pyrrha looks at him concerningly.

* * *

 

Later, the teams eat lunch in the mess hall together while Nora tries to tell a story to the other teams sitting with her. "So there we were, in the middle of the night surrounded by dozens of Ursai!" She says excitedly when Ren lazily interjects into her story. "It was morning, they were Beowolves and there were only two of them." Ash and his team all sweat drop at Nora's story while Ruby and her team mind their own business. "Ren, how exactly do you-?" Erica says before he interjects.  "She's been having this dream for about a month now." Erica's eyes widen in shock when Pyrrha looks at Jaune who was prodding his food with his fork with his head in his hands. "Jaune? Are you alright?" She asks worriedly and her voice startles him and makes him jump and drops his fork. "Oh! Yeah, why?" "Uhh... Because you don't look okay?" Ruby says nervously. Jaune wave her off with his hand, "Guys I'm fine really look." He smiles and does a thumbs up for himself when everyone turns their heads to the sound of laughter behind him. They all see Cardin and his team pulling on a brown haired girl with bunny ears sticking out of his head, laughing to themselves. Before anyone can say anything Onyx jumps over the table and grips Cardin's wrist until he lets the girl go. Cardin shouts in pain and rips his hand free from Onyx's grasp and hold his arm tenderly. He opens his mouth to say something back to Onyx he gives Cardin a dark glare, making him scoff and gesture to his group to move away from him.

"What, Cardin Winchester? He’s harmless. Trust me guys, he’s just joking around.” Jaune says exasperatedly to his teammates. “You do realize he’s a bully right?” Ash asks Jaune with a raised eyebrow. “Name one time he bullied me!” Jaune counters back and Ash hold up his hand to count off his fingers. One by one, Rain, Pyrrha and Erica list down different events where Jaune was bullied. “He jammed your shield into a doorway.” “He’s knocked your book over when you walking in the hallway.” “He shot you into the Emerald forest in your rocket locker.” Jaune sweat drops as they reiterate he different events and he stands up with his food tray. “Guys, don’t worry. Like I said, I’m fine.” He walks away and everyone looks at each other unsure of their friend/leader’s decision when Onyx sits down in Jaune’s place. “Hey what was that?” Blake asks him as soon as he sits down.  He rests his head in his hands and turns away before answering. “I’m against Faunus discrimination.” A faint smile slowly forma on her face when he answers and she nods her head in approval.


	11. Jaunedice Part-2

Later that day, the three teams sit in another class with everyone acting as usual. Onyx, Ruby, Rain, and Jaune barely paid attention to the teacher’s lecture while the rest if their team tried to listen to the lesson. The teacher, a tall man with spiky green hair and large circle glasses literally zipped around the front of the classroom as he drank from his silver thermos. “Now, before the Faunus Rights Revolution or the Faunus war, humankind was adamant on keeping the Faunus population in the island of Menagerie.” He took a sip from his thermos before talking again. “Now remember, while this seems like ancient history to some of you, you have to remember that these are relatively recent events.” He takes another sip from his thermos and zips to another part of the classroom. “Now, who here has been faced with discrimination due to their Faunus heritage.” A few students raise their hands, the rabbit girl from the cafeteria among them, making the professor shake his head. “Dreadful, simply dreadful. Remember students this is the kind of ignorance that breed violence. I mean look at the White Fang.” Ash perks up from the mention of the White Fang and looks at the professor more attentively.

“Now, who can tell me what may theorize the turning point in the third year of the war?” Weiss immediately raises her hand. “The battle at Fort castle!” She shouts out and the professor nods his head. “Precisely! Now, who can tell me what advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?” Near the front of the classroom, Jaune has his head down and closes his eyes when a piece of paper hits him from behind, making him hold the back of his head and turn around. “Hey!? Who-” “Mr. Arc! Finally deciding to contribute to the class! Do you know the answer to the question?” Jaune looks around the room for help when Pyrrha makes her hands into circles and puts them over her eyes. “Advantage… umm… Binoculars?” He says unsurely and Pyrrha facepalms and Cardin pounds his fist on his desk and laughs. “Very funny Mr. Arc.” The professor says as he turns to Cardin. “Mr. Winchester, perhaps you would like to share your thoughts on the subject?” “Well, I think it’s easier to train an animal than a soldier.” He smugly replies and Erica sighs. “You’re not the most open-minded person are you?” She asks him and he looks at her in anger. “What!? Do you have a problem!?”

“No, I have an answer. It’s night vision, many Faunus are known to have near perfect sight in the dark.” Cardin grumbles when Pyrrha and Blake jump in. “Lagune was inexperienced and tired ambushing the Faunus when they slept. His army was overpowered and he was subsequently captured.” “Blake leans forward and looks at Cardin, ”Maybe if he paid more attention in class he wouldn't have been captured and remembered as a failure.” The class starts to chuckle and Cardin gets up from his desk with his fist raised. “Mr. Winchester! Take your seat!” The professor shouts before he can do anything and turns back to Jaune who struggles to stop chuckling. “Mr. Winchester. Mr. Arc. The two of you will stay after class for some extra reading.” Jaune slumps into his seat and continues the lesson.

* * *

 

Soon the class ends and people start to walk out of the door when Pyrrha looks back at the classroom. “You guys go on ahead, I’ll catch up after Jaune is done.” She tells Ren and Nora and they both walk off. Ash looks back at Pyrrha and taps Erika on the shoulder. “Yeah, I’m gonna wait too. I’ll see you guys back in the room.” Erica nods her head and Ash walks back to the door where Pyrrha look in on Jaune.

“The two of you have been struggling in my class since day one.” The professor says as he watches over Jaune and Cardin as they read a large book in front of them. “I don’t know if this is because of lack of interest or you’re stubborn nature, but whatever it is… It stops now.” He takes a drink of his coffee before continuing. “The two of you worked hard to enter this school and we only accept the best, so it is expected that you act like it. It’s important to remember that history is important, and those who don't learn from it are forced to repeat it.” He points at the two books in front of the teenagers. “Pages 51 to 91. I want an essay on my desk by Monday. Now, run along.” The professor zips out of the classroom and Jaune picks up his things and walks out too, however as soon as he reaches the door Cardin pushes his to the ground and walks away chuckling to himself.

“Hey come on man!” Ash shouts after Cardin while Pyrrha helps Jaune up. “You know I heard Nora say she would break his legs.” Ash imagines Nora with her hammer chasing after Cardin and shudders looking back at Pyrrha. “Do… Do you think she was serious?” Pyrrha shrugs and Jaune sighs while rubbing the back of his head when Pyrrha realizes something and tugs on his arm. “Hey, I just remembered something. Follow me.” She pulls him down the other side of the hall and Ash walks after them with his hands in his pockets.

* * *

 

The three of them end up on the roof of the building and Ash leans back against the door while Jaune looks over the edge of the roof. "Pyrrha, I know I look depressed but I'm not that sad. I could be a farmer or something." Pyrrha looks over the edge and back to Jaune and her eyes widen as she pulls him back. "NO! That's not why I brought you up here!" When Jaune is safely away from the edge, Pyrrha continues. "Listen Jaune, I know you're not the strongest or the smartest of fighters, but I want to help you." Jaune looks at his partner with a confused face. "Help me?" Pyrrha gestures to the roof with her other hand. "We can train here after classes. No one will bother us here." Jaune's face morphs into an expression of pain and steps back from her. "Are you saying I need help?"

"No that's not what she means." Ash jumps in. "Everyone needs a push from time to time Jaune, and that doesn't mean that you're not talented. You made it into Beacon, that says a lot already." But Jaune shakes his head sadly. "I don't belong here." He mumbles catching the attention of Pyrrha. "What are you-" "I wasn't really accepted into Beacon!" He suddenly blurts out making his two friends stop in their tracks. "Jaune, what are you talking about?"

"I mean I didn't go to combat school, I didn't pass any test, and I didn't earn my way into this academy! I cheated!" His voice resonates with Ash and Pyrrha who look at each other with unsure expressions, letting Jaune continue his rant. "I lied to get in! I got my hands on some fake transcripts, and I lied." Pyrrha looks at Ash with a distraught face and he matches her expression and shrugs. "Jaune... Why?" "Because this is all that I've ever wanted to be! My father and his father were both warriors, heroes, and I wanted to be like them. I was just never good enough for the schools." Ash walks closer to Jaune and reaches out to put his hand on his shoulder. "Then let us help you-"

"I don't want your help!" Jaune shouts and smacks Ash's hand away. "I'm done being the damsel in distress, I want to be the hero! I'm done being the kid stuck in the tree while his friends fight for their lives. If I can't do this on my own, then what good am I?" Ash and Pyrrha are at a loss for words when Jaune crosses his arms and turns away from them. "Just... leave me alone." Pyrrha lowers her head and mumbles, "If that's what you think is best," before walking away. Ash shakes his head in disgust and puts his hands in his pockets. "You won't be able to do everything yourself Jaune. That's why we have teams."  Ash walks back into the building, only to hear a familiar laugh when he reaches the doorway. "Oh hey, Jaune!" "C-Cardin!?" Ash hears Jaune gasp and he quickly moves out of the doorway and leaves him by himself. "You should have taken her offer Jaune." Ash whispers to himself, shaking his head and walks away.


	12. Forever Fall

Jaune walks back to his room, scratching his head about his current situation. "Of all the people to find out, it had to be Cardin." He says with disdain as he remembers his chat with him earlier. _'If you do what I say, no one will find out about your little secret.'_ He sighs when he reaches the door of his room and opens the door when he hears his teammates talking. He opens the door part way and listens in on what his teammates are talking about.

* * *

Pyrrha looks out the window of her room while sitting down on her bed. Ren cleans his weapons while Nora jumps up and down on her own bed. "Hey, where is Jaune? He should be back now?" Nora thinks out loud, not bothering to stop jumping. "He's been spending a lot more time with Cardin recently." Ren points out. "He's probably with him now." "Huh? But why? We have a field trip tomorrow. We need out rest!" She does a flip and lands on her back as she finishes her sentence. "I'm sure our leader knows _exactly_ what he's doing," Pyrrha answers with anger in her voice, making Ren and Nora look at her in confusion.

* * *

Jaune slowly closes the door and slumps back against the wall and let out a loud sigh. He looks down at the floor in shame when he hears a voice. "Jaune?" "Oh hey, Jaune! Did you lock yourself out of your room again?" He looks up to find Ruby and Ash standing over him in their pajamas. Ruby hand a black tank top and white jogging pants both with pink hearts on them, while Ash had the same clothes from the first night of school. "Nope, I have my key." He says with a chuckle "What are you doing here?" Ruby asks with childlike curiosity and Jaune shakes his head in shame. "I messed up Ruby. I did something stupid and Cardin as a leach on me now. I'm not cut out to be a leader." He laments and slumps further against the door. "I should never have enrolled here."

"Nope!" The dark haired girl responds, popping the "p" at the end. "Nope? What are you talking about." Jaune asks surprised, looking up at the girl. "You're a leader now Jaune, you're not allowed to be a failure." Ash comments from the side. "But what if I'm a failure at being a failure?" Jaune responds and Ash turns away to sweatdrop and facepalm. _'How does that even make sense?!'_ He screams at himself mentally. "Nope!" Ruby responds again and moves to sit down next to Jaune, who starts to chuckle. "You're not the best at talks like this are you?" "Nope!" She responds once again and Jaune breathes a sigh of relief. "You're a leader now Jaune. Maybe you were a failure back then, and maybe you were a failure when we met, but you can't be one anymore. Want to know why?" Jaune looks at her hopefully as she continued. "Because it's not just about you anymore. You have a team now and if you mess up, you take the entire team down with you." Ash leaned against the wall and speaks up. "We have to put out teammates first because they are going to rely on us. Ozpin said he chose us as leaders for a reason and we have to live up to his expectations."

Jaune looks up at Ash with a raised eyebrow. "Hey, Ash, how do you feel about becoming the leader of your team?" Ruby's eyes widen and she looks up at Ash as well. "Oh yeah. I thought you didn't want to be a leader, or even have a team. How are you putting up with it." Ash looks to the side with a contemplative look and looks up to the ceiling. "It's not like I didn't want a team. It's just that… you've seen how I use my weapon right?" Both teens nodded their head and Ash continues. "I fight better when I have more space to swing my weapon. It gets even more dangerous when I use my semblance to I tend to err on the side of caution." Ruby and Jaune look at the boy in understanding when Ruby stretches her arms and stands back up. "Alright, well I'm going to bed. We have that field trip tomorrow remember." Jaune looks at the girl with confusion, but Ash nods his head. "Forever Fall right? I've actually never been there before." Ruby smiles and opens the door to her room and waves her hand to the boys. "Good night guys! I hope you feel better Jaune!" She says before closing the door behind her.

As soon as she closes the door, Jaune's scroll rings, making him jump and accept the call quickly to stop the loud ringtone. "Hey, Jaune! It's you buddy Cardin!" The voice speaks through the speaker, and Jaune freezes up while Ash leans in to hear the voice. "I know you're probably busy with that Dust project I gave you, buuuut I'm gonna need you to go out and get me a bag of Rapier Wasps, And make sure they've got some **really** big stingers! It's important, so don't screw this up!" The call suddenly ends and Jaune looks back at Ash, who looks at him with a blank expression. "So, are you going through with it?" He asks and the blonde boy looks away and doesn't respond. "I told you that you can't do everything by yourself. Now you have to make a choice, help your team or help the bully." He pushed himself off the wall and starts walking back to his room. "Whatever you do, you're on your own. Don't expect any help from me." The boy walks back into his room and shuts the door behind him. Jaune looks down at his scroll and sighs, walking off to do Cardin's bidding.

* * *

The next day, Glynda leads the four teams; AERO, RWBY, JNPR, and CRDN through a forest made out of white trees with bright red leaves. All the teams look at the scenery in awe, each of them holding empty jars in their arms. "This place looks amazing." Erika remarks and Goodwitch sighs in response. "Yes, while the forests of Forever Fall are quite impressive, you have to remember to watch your back at all times." Her statement makes all the students look at their instructor with understanding looks. She stops in the middle of a large clearing, and the rest of the students stop with her. "The Grimm here are attracted to the red sap we are going to collect today. Your task today is to collect one jar of sap each and I want all of you to watch over your teammates as you collect this sap." The students nod their heads as Glynda crosses her arms, holding her riding crap at her side. "Be back at this spot by 4 o'clock. Good luck to all of you." The students all run into the forest, while Cardin slaps his arm over Jaune's back, who was holding a large cardboard box with six jars stacked on it. "Let's go, buddy!" He says with a fake smile and Jaune is lead away from his team by him.

* * *

When Jaune is away, the Teams RWBY and AERO fill up their jars with sap. While Rain and Erica fill their jars with sap, Ash and Onyx examine theirs with curious faces. "Do you think we can drink this?" Onyx asks him as he holds his jar up and Ash scratches the back of his head with an unsure look. "I don't know, I really don't think you sho-" As he says this a loud gulping noise followed by an equally loud burp echoes through the forest and everyone turns to look at Nora who has an empty bottle in her hand with a pink stain around her mouth. "NORA!" Ren shouts in irritation and Onyx lowers his jar and holds his at his waist. "You know what, I think I'll hold off drinking it for now." Ash nods his head and puts his jar away. "Yeah, I'm with you there."

Yang looks around with her team before landing on Pyrrha. "Say where's Jaune? Shouldn't he be with you guys?" Ren and Nora lower their heads and say nothing while Pyrrha answers without turning around. "Jaune is with Cardin. Hopefully, he isn't doing anything rash." Team RWBY looks at themselves with unsure faces while Ash heaves a sigh and shakes his head. _'She's putting a lot of faith in him right now.'_ He looks into the forests with a hardened gaze. _'Jaune, you better not be doing anything stupid.'_

* * *

In another part of the forest, Team CRDN lazily rest against trees as Jaune slowly trudges toward them with a handful of sap-filled jars. When he reaches them, he slumps over and lands face first on the ground. "I… I think I'm allergic to this..." He moans as Cardin gets up and dusts his armor with his hands. "Nice going Jaune. You got all the sap we needed right?" Jaune picks himself up and looks at the jars next to him. "Yeah, I got all of the sap. " Cardin chuckles and picks up one of the jars and shows it to Jaune. "Now, you're probably thinking, why would my buddy Cardin have me get six jars of sap where there are only five of us?" A smirk appears on Cardin's face as he grabs Jaune by the shoulder pulls him away. "Just follow me Jauney boy and I'll show you." Cardin leads him to the edge of a cliff where it overlooked a large part of the forest. Cardin points downward and Jaune follows his finger to see Pyrrha and the other teams collecting their jars of sap. "Cardin, what's going on?" Jaune asked worriedly and the bully pounds his fist into the ground. "Payback. Acting like a know-it-all in class, thinking she's so smart. Well, not today." Cardin gets up from the ground and gets the box Jaune brought with him and holds it up.

"Here's what's going to happen Jauny boy," Cardin says menacingly as his teammates come up behind him and one of them tosses Jaune a jar of sap. "You're going to throw that jar of sap down there ñwith all of your friends and these Rapier wasps you collected will do the rest. Oh, and don't even think about backing out unless you want to be in the first airship out if Beacon after we tell Miss Goodwitch about you cheating." Jaune looked down at the jar and closes his eyes and attempted to throw it down the cliff. However, something stopped him and he keeps his arm reared behind him but doesn't let go of the jar. He opens his eyes and clenches his other hand into a fist. "No." "What?!" Cardin says in shock when Jaune suddenly turns around. "I said NO!" When he turns around, Jaune throws the jar at Cardin before reeling back nervously Cardin looks down at his armor, which was now covered in patches of pink sap. Cardin's teammates back away as their leader as he lashes out and grabs Jaune by his sweater and holds him off the ground. "Big mistake little man." Cardin sneers and Jaune gulps in fear.


End file.
